WEEK 17 IN BAY CITY

hey everyone!! what a great week!!

this week we had some amazing experiences and met some awesome people! here is one of them: we went to go visit a less active 17 year old who is an awesome kid named ray. we meet with him often. we were talking about getting him a ride to church, and this girl that was with him that we had met before jokingly says that her mom could give him a ride. well, after we left, they went over and asked if she could give him a ride. turns out, she had questions for us and things! so we went over a few days later and taught the restoration and she loved it. we have taught her the plan of salvation as well and she loves it all. she came to church yesterday and it has been such a blessing to meet her! her name is stacy. way awesome experience! im grateful the Lord prepares these amazing people!

Parker and his old Trainer/Comp, Elder Stevenson, 
at a training meeting.
Doesn't he look so happy!!!

we met a few other people this week with very difficult lives, but it has led them to be so ready for the gospel. what a huge blessing! things are going really well out here right now, and our investigators are getting excited for general conference! i am excited as well and just so happy with the way things have gone this past week. but transfer calls are this friday, so we will see where i am after the dust settles! cuz at this point i honestly have no idea what is going to happen.

This is Parker's famous "Stank" face!!! 
We miss him making us laugh.
Where did he get those sunglasses, Dollar Days?

some of the pictures this week deserve an explanation. here in bay city, every year, they have this giant thing called the river of time. basically a ton of war reenactors and things go and set up tents by the river, and tons of other historical groups or people set up tents and little demonstrations as well. well, about 10 years ago, the mormon church got into it as the mormon battalion that was assembled during the mexican american war. so our set-up has some little things where kids can pan for gold and things like that. but we also have a huge game of 3 way tug of war, stick pull, and some other fun games. we spent nearly the whole day there saturday (we are not allowed to proselyte there, but lots of people asked us about why we were in shirts and ties there haha and we got a lot of really solid people out of it) and every time we would line up a game of 3 way tug of war, tons of people would gather around and watch and cheer and stuff. we had more people around our set up than any other group. it was really cool to see, cuz it is a HUGE deal out here! anyways, there’s that.

We aren't sure what Parker is doing in this pic!
Could be dancing or could be doing Spiderman pose :)

"What does the Fox say!" haha 

Yes, Parker and his companion 
actually bought these Beaver Bags!!!
Really? New Scripture Cases?!? 
Those will look great on the bikes.
This was a tent/booth at the River of Time

so things are going well here in bay city. something i was thinking about a lot this week: we meet a lot of atheists. some are very cool, some are very not. i respect some atheists, because they feel they have searched for the truth, and they couldnt find it. or they have had difficult times and havent found the truth yet. but the majority of them (and these are usually the rude ones) are the young adults/kids who read something online about how cool it is to be atheist and they dont want any rules in their life, so they decide to be atheist. well.. i usually try and be patient with these people. but the other day, we were talking to a teenage kid who was just dropping lots of filthy language and i was kinda getting fed up with him. so i asked what he thought about religion and he said he was athiest. i asked why. he said there was no proof god was there. i said really? he said yeah. i believe in science. i said really? he said yeah, if you look at science it proves theres no god. i said oh yeah? and how much do you know about science? he said oh, i dont care about science (expletives removed from his reply). i just thought that was so ridiculous. someone claims to not believe in god because of science, but they never know anything about science. my point is not to say this kid didnt deserve my patience or deserve to hear the truth, regardless of his disrespect, my point is the proof for god is all round us. I am proof. i am a missionary. there are tens of thousands of pieces of evidence just like me throughout the world. the scriptures are evidence. anyone who believes in God is evidence. do not be deceived people. Christ said that in the last days, even the very elect could be deceived by the enemy of truth. dont be one of them! read the book of mormon. ask god if it is true. no matter how hard life gets, dont ever "jump ship". dont leave the church. dont give up on your faith. jeffrey r. holland says that there are definitely questions that we have and doubts we may have, "but first and forever fan the flame of your faith."

last thought: Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words

-st. francis of assisi

be an example! no one cares how much you know, till they know how much you care!

love you all! have a good week!