Hello Everyone!

I got called to serve in Tempe right next to ASU! My trainer Elder Forson got called to be one of the assistants, too, so he lives super close by me and we are actually going out to do a zone activity today as well! We are probably going to play an awesome game of basketball which is super fun because I haven’t played in such a LONG TIME! I am super stoked! But I am doing my best to get to know the area now and all of the members in it. 

My companion has been sick for the past 2 days so I have been taking care of him. But today he is feeling better and we are going with an investigator out to dinner and then to the Mesa Temple Visitors Center which will be super fun! I haven't been to the visitors center in such a long time. So I am super excited for that as well! In the past 2 days that my companion, Elder Bono, was sick I finished reading "Our Search for Happiness", and also got about 80 pages into "Jesus the Christ." Those are super good books and I am so glad that I am able to have this time of my life just to study and teach about Christ. It really helps me to get to know and love him even more than I already do. Plus "Our Search for Happiness" was the first book that I have actually read on my own all of the way through since my 6th grade year. CRAZY!!! But I think that I have finally gained some motivation to read and learn more!

Well, I will let you know how everything goes this week and I will also send you some pictures of me and my new companion next P-Day when I will have some to send! Thanks for all that you do for me mom! I love being able to count on getting a letter from you and Dad every Monday!

Love you tons,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Hello Everyone!!!

That is super cool about Riley’s mission farewell!  I wish that I could have been there for his talk, but it is good to know that I am where I am supposed to be at this time just as he is! :)  It is really fun to look back and think of the things that Riley, Brenden, and myself have done in the past! We always had super fun things going on. One thing that I will always remember us doing is that we would go out into Brenden’s back yard into the canal and go ice skating and go run up and down the canals in the winter when all of the water was frozen. We always had a ton of fun together.

This week was pretty good for me and my companion! We went out and visited a lot of people and were able to get in contact with quite a few of them! We also started up something in our ward where we are going around and challenging all of the members to have someone in their homes for us to teach within 30 days! It is a super short time period, but so far the ward seems to be reacting very POSITIVELY! :) However, just like any other time something is about to happen, someone gets moved out of the area. This time it is my turn I guess... I am getting transferred out of this area on Wednesday and so Elder McMichael will be getting a new trainer for the 2nd half of his training, and I am going out to be a District Leader somewhere else in the mission. I am betting that I am going to get called to Yuma for the summer! That would be super fun even though it is just like crazy far away.

Anyway, before we got the news earlier in the week, me and my companion were inside the stake center doing Facebook and we had left the windows to the car down just a crack so that when we got in the car we wouldn’t bake. But then when we came outside to leave we saw that on the rear view mirror there was a little picture of a bear holding a CD that said, "Thanks for the CD!" I called the Zone Leaders and said, "Hey so did you guys take my CD?" They said no but that they would send out a group text to see who did. Anyway, they ended up telling us that 2 other missionaries in the Zone had taken them and so me and Elder McMichael started to plot against them in some way. We came to the conclusion that we were just going to go and find their bikes and just barely off-set the handlebars so that they wouldn’t be completely straight. That would have been so funny! :D Then when we were just about to do it, we found out that it was indeed the Zone Leaders that had taken it and so we went and squirted them with water! :) fun stuff!

Well, that is about it for this week. I will make sure to send you guys the address that I move too so that you can tell all of my friends! Oh and tell my friends back home when you see them that LETTERS SERIOUSLY MAKE THE ENTIRE WEEK AWESOME FOR A MISSIONARY!!! Oh, and if they have any extra ties laying around they can know they can send them to me! ;)

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Mommy!!!

Sorry I don't have too much to say this week since I told you most of the stuff yesterday on the Skype call! :) It was super fun to see all of you guys though! It is super weird however that Mothers Day is already over. That seemed to come by really really fast! But it was super fun because all of the people yesterday just seemed to be super extra happy! Which is always a good sign for missionaries!

I don't remember the name of the guy that I was on Trek. But I do still have the wrist band packed away somewhere back at the house. I made sure to keep that and make sure that it stays safe for me when I get back home. That is really cool about the people that Tyler and Emily get to be this year though! That will be a super cool experience. One thing on the Trek that really stuck out to me was the Women's pull. I just remember the leaders all telling us that we were not allowed to go out and help the girls pull the wagons up the hill. But as they started Martin, a few others, and myself started to cheer them on to get to the top. I wanted so bad just to run down and help push them up. I have kind of noticed a trait that I have in my personality recently. It never really stuck out to me but I really LOVE to help people do service projects! I hate seeing other people working on something that I could so easily be helping with, but I'm not. :)

Other than that I will continue to keep a smile on my face for the remainder of my Mission and hopefully longer! I love being out here on my mission and even though it is hard only to see all of you guys 2 times a year, it is totally worth it if I can come home a better guy that when I left! I can only go UP from here! ;D I love you guys all a ton, and make sure to keep me up to date on all the cool things that happen in the next week!

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Hello Everyone!!!

I have been super blessed to be in a 2 AWESOME zones so far in my mission and the district that I am in right now seems to be super awesome as well! They are all SOLID MISSIONARIES! I think that hardest thing for me is just making sure that I am doing everything that I possibly can to keep on being a good example for other missionaries and also everybody back home.

I always am trying to find out a better way to gain even more motivation than I already have (even though I am not unmotivated in any way right now). ;) I recently found a really cool way that really helps me to stay focused on the work! I grabbed a Book of Mormon and a Bible and began to find some similarities in them. I bought some little tabs for books at Walmart so that I could highlight the scriptures and then turn right to the ones that I want to go to. I found scriptures for so far every topic that it talks about in the Restoration of the Gospel and in the Plan of Salvation! It really helps my testimony continue to grow as I am able to confirm my Faith and Knowledge with scripture! Have you also ever seen the cards that people have that have "The 17 Points of the True Church" on them? I got one from Elder Erikson when I was his companion and I just went through the Bible and I began to mark all of the scriptures that tell about the 17 things that the true church must have. It was super fun to do that because it just made me think, "Hey The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has all of this stuff!!!" It was really cool! So then I wanted to do more on that subject. So I went through and got into the foot notes and also just looked through the Topical Guide to find scriptures that tell of the 17 things that the true church must have in the Book of Mormon! I was able to find every single point that was in the Bible in the Book of Mormon also! That was a huge testimony builder for me!

This week we also had something kind of funny happen to us with a guy that we talked to on the street. :) We were waiting at a cross walk to cross one of the main roads and we saw this kid riding his skateboard heading right toward us. He quickly said, "Hey do you guys have some time to go over some scripture with me?" So we said, "Yeah sure." So we went over to a little shop that had some chairs and tables outside of it and he began to talk to us. I kind of figured that something was a little bit "Fishy" because not many people usually pull us aside to specifically go over scriptures with them. So then he began to ask us questions and he had scriptures from the bible that he was trying to use against us. It was super crazy that there are people who are seriously out here just to try to prove us wrong. However, one thing I talked with Elder McMichael about after that was all over is the way that he was trying to teach us. I asked Elder McMichael, "What is the difference between the way that he tried to teach us, and how we need to teach others?" The huge difference that I noticed is that we can truly TESTIFY that we know this to be true, because we have actually read the scriptures and prayed about it for ourselves! All that he was trying to do is use the scriptures against others rather than using them to bring them up and closer to our Heavenly Father. We truly need to teach with the spirit, and not with just the knowledge of man that we have! :) It was a good experience for us!

WE FOUND OUT THAT WE ARE ABLE TO SKYPE HOME ON SUNDAY FOR MOTHERS DAY!!! So now I am EXTRA excited! I will talk to you all then and thank you so much for all of the support you have for me!

Love,

Elder Wallentine

P.S. We went hiking this morning and I got a few pictures so here they are!