Hello!!

One thing that I have really noticed is that when we all share personal experiences that we have had in our lives people open up a ton more and we are able to allow them to feel the Spirit in a way that they may not have if you didn't share that. Although I am still just a young man I still have  experiences in some things and they have really helped me as I have continued on through my mission so far. It is amazing!

This last week on Thursday we had transfer meeting and both of my companions got transferred and I stayed here in Mesa. I love it here and the members for sure take really good care of us. My new companion is named Elder Hardy and he is from Salt Lake City. He is for sure an interesting kid. He is always super energetic and super happy, which is super good! These past few days have been super hard for me for some reason. I just do not really feel like myself. I don't like it at all. 

This morning we had a conference call with President Toone, the assistants, and the other Zone Leaders in the mission and that got me super frustrated because the conference calls have to be set up all weird because the phones can only call like 2 people at a time, and there are 14 zones. It was super frustrating and I am super glad that is over. I think that is one of the reasons that today I am just a little bit unhappy. But I still love my mission and still try to keep a smile on my face everywhere. The way that I see it is if I am not happy, then I better FAKE being happy until I GET HAPPY! It has seemed to work so far so I am going to keep on trying to do that. 

This week should be a really good week because we are going to go and see a ton of super cool people that we have been teaching. Although not everybody in the whole world is interested right now to hear the gospel, I know that there are always people all around us that have been prepared to hear it. This got confirmed to me yesterday when we went over to meet with one of our investigators. He has been looking into the church for like 3 years and he has never agreed to be baptized yet. But when we went to church yesterday he was there and he pulled us aside and said, "Hey guys I need to talk about something with you? Can we meet soon?" That night we went over and talked with him and he said, "I have decided to get baptized!" It was one of the best feelings that I have had on my mission. I am super excited for him and I cannot wait for those other people who in the future, or right now have been prepared to hear the message that we carry! 

That is about all that I have to say for this week! I WILL BE THE HAPPIEST MISSIONARY IN THE MISSION BY NEXT WEEK I PROMISE!!! :D

Love you tons,

Elder Wallentine

Mommy!!!

Yeah, so the Family Mission Plan is super cool! President Toone invited the entire mission to start putting it into use in every single ward in the mission, and now the stake presidents are wanting us to get it to every single member family that is in the ward! It is going to be super cool! It is basically a plan to teach members how they can be better missionaries, and how they can work more in unison with the Full Time Missionaries. It has a couple of steps with it... 1st you take a piece of paper and you write down ANY names that come to your mind, people that are members, or nonmembers, or just might need service. 2nd you pray about the list of names and then pick 2-3 names that have stuck out to you during your prayer and set some goals for them. You set a goal like, "I want to invite them to a ward picnic" or something like that, and then put a date that you want to start working with them by, and a date that you will have invited them by. It is really cool!!! It is really cool that we are able to do things like that in our mission! It is obviously the BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD!!! :D One really cool thing is that if you can find someone for us to teach and I can help with it, I can Skype in and help you guys teach them a discussion, whether it be on Facebook or in our home! So keep that in mind and let me know!

This week was a super cool and crazy week for sure! We had a ton of meetings with the mission getting together because of some things that have gone on in the mission recently. We got to meet together on Friday and on Saturday which was really cool. The meeting on Saturday was especially cool because Elder Corbrige from the Seventy, The Presiding Bishop, and Elder D. Todd Christopherson all came down to visit with only our mission which was really special! He had a lot to say, but I think that the biggest thing that stuck out to me is just something that he said at the very end of his talk. He spoke about how big of a sin "Rebellion" is. Rebellion is the sin that made it so Lucifer got kicked out of the presence of god and made him the father of all lies. I know that while I was home I for sure had a little bit of rebellion inside of me, maybe it just kinda comes with being a high schooler, but it for sure shouldn't have. Sorry for the pain that I was through High School! :) But that really hit me and that is something that I am really going to work on. I NEVER WANT TO HAVE ANY REBELLIOUS THOUGHTS AGAINST PRESIDENT TOONE, AND IN THE FUTURE, MY FAMILY AND MY SPOUSE. That is something that can tear families apart I believe just as well if not better than any other serious sin.

We saw a METEOR the other day which was pretty cool! We saw a big thing flying across the sky and then it broke into like 4 fire balls falling down to the ground! It was super cool to be able to see that happen!!!

LOVE YOU TONS!!!

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Hello!!

That sounds like a pretty cool little plan that the missionaries have going on in that area. Do the missionaries in the Boise mission have Facebook/iPads yet? If they do, then you should tell them to add me, and if they don't then you should just let me know! I have a couple people that I am working with back home on Facebook that are super interested that are actually looking for a church to join. So if they don't have them then I will just give you the peoples information to pass onto the missionaries in the area! It is so cool to be able to see missionary work online take off and actually find success in it! :) 

This week we had some really cool things happen in our companionship! We have set a goal as a zone to make sure to ask EVERYONE that we come in contact with for referrals, and we were able to do that this week pretty well and we were able to get 5 referrals from members, and non-members which is super cool! We just went over yesterday to contact the mother of this non-member lady that I contacted on the street and were able to give her a Book of Mormon and also one of the really cool restoration pamphlets that we have! She was super nice and said that we would be good to come back over on Tuesday to go through it with her! :) I am super excited because it is not every day that you run into people who are actually nice to you! It is super awesome! :) 

Now that I am more than halfway through my mission I am realizing some things that I feel like I have really slacked on for the last few months. I did a really good job at loving the people that I have been teaching up until I hit my 1 year mark and then it seemed to get a little bit harder. But I think that I found out why it was getting so hard for me to love them. I have been teaching, and I have been testifying, but I need to do better at sharing personal experiences with the people that I come in contact with. The experience that we had in Belgium with the two missionaries that had been praying, and also President Buysse were all praying for a family to move into the ward that would at least be at church every Sunday. I love that experience because it shows that God really does put us in situations to be able to help answer other peoples prayers while he is also answering our prayers at the same time. If Dad hadn't lost his job at Zilog, then we would have had no reason to move over to Belgium. Then also if we had chosen to move to Pocatello to get the job for ON semi-conductor there then we would have not been in Belgium to help out. It is so amazing when we realize how perfect God's plan for us really is. Although we will all go through hard times in our lives, if we stay focused on the BIGGER PICTURE rather than the little stumbling block, EVERYTHING WILL FALL INTO PLACE either in the near future, or in the future further out. It is super awesome! 

I love you so much and thank you so much for all that you guys do for me! I really do enjoy getting letters from you every week!  

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!!

The pants that you sent me work perfectly! I got a little bit worried when they didn't have the stretchy fabric on the sides, but then I wore them the next day and they fit really good and are super comfortable so thank you so much for getting all of that figured out for me! :) That is super exciting and crazy that it was already Izzy's birthday again, I still remember getting the letter last year when you all told me that it was her birthday. It is crazy to think that I have already been out for over a year. It has gone by so fast so far, and is only speeding up now that I am a Zone Leader. 

One thing that I know I am being tested on a ton right now is my patience. :) Right now there are not many people for us to teach in our records, and the members are still trying to kinda get the hang of doing missionary work! There are a few families in the wards that are super solid, and also most of the ones that I have met so far are super nice and are willing to at least learn how to be missionaries. It is just hard to feel successful when you are working with the members and not teaching a whole lot of non-members. But, it is going to be super awesome because the way that we are going to have the best results is by getting ALL OF THE MEMBERS ON BOARD WITH US!!! It is so amazing when you get a member to contact one of their friends and then we are able to go over and teach that person with that member there also. It is such a good testimony builder to me that God has a way to touch all of the hearts of his children. It will not always be because missionaries in white shirts and black name tags come to their door and say, "Hey we felt like we should come by and share a message with you."  We literally need the members of the church or else missionary work would DIE! :D It is awesome to know that!

This week something kinda funny happened though! We went to a member's home on Saturday night and they had these remote control cars out that apparently can get up to about 40 miles per hour. They were super cool because I have never even heard of a toy that can go that fast! The member said that before we come in to talk we could each have a turn to drive them around a little bit, so of course we did! They were super fun and then they invited us in to share a little Mormon Message with them! After we shared the video we talked for a little bit and they asked us if we could stop by their neighbors! We said, "OF COURSE WE CAN!" So since it was a little bit late by the time we got out of that house we decided that we would come back the very next day on Sunday and contact all of those people. 

None of them really ended up being interested but it is always a good experience just to talk to so many different people to hear some different sides of the story. One of the guys actually came out of the house and said, "I'm not interested, GET!" That didn't go over well in my head, but all I did is ask if we can come back sometime and talk with him and his family about why families are really so important, and he said once again, "GET!" So we told him to have a good night and we went on our way. It gave us something to laugh about though for the rest of the night, until something else happened too that we laughed at for the remainder. 

We went to this member's home who hasn't been to church in a long time and talked to him at the door for a little while. He was talking with us and kind of dodging talking about church or the gospel in any way. But finally I just asked him, "Why haven't you come to church lately?" He explained to us that he hasn't come to church because he no longer believes in the Word of Wisdom. He doesn't understand why we CAN'T do things like drink, or smoke and stuff like that. Then he took it to a whole new level and told us that from the beginning of time WATER has been bad for our bodies... :P I thought that that was super lame. But although we tried to help him understand he was not ready to hear it. He rejected the invitation and we let him be on his way. Kinda a BUMMER. But it is good to know that everyone will have another chance to accept or reject this great message that we share with others all over the world. THERE ARE SO MANY OF US THAT NEED TO HEAR IT AGAIN! Those of us who have the gospel in our lives need to understand that we NEED to continue to strengthen our faith and knowledge, so that we do not end up falling away! DOUBT YOUR DOUBTS, BEFORE YOU DOUBT YOUR FAITH! I love that quote!

Anyway, thank you so much for the awesome letter and also for all of the goodies that you guys sent to me! I love you all so much! Tell Izzy HAPPY BIRTHDAY for me, and tell Collette, and Emmett hi for me too!

Love you tons,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Oh, and here is a picture of the crazy flood that happened today! 

Hello!!

Thank you so much for doing that for me and getting the whole clothing thing taken care of! I have only gained like 10 lbs so far on my mission which I am super surprised about since everybody told me that I would be getting super fat on my mission. But as for me and my companions, we are getting BUFF/Serve the Lord! :)

This week was a super crazy week to be a ZL because first of all that whole training thing in front of the General Authority and 5 other zones was a little bit nerve racking! But luckily we ended up not having to train because they had a little bit of a change of plans when we got together that day! It was awesome! It was really cool though because we had a Mission Leadership Counsel on Wednesday and Elder Schweitzer from the Seventy talked a lot about the tools that the church has given us to become better and more effective missionaries, and he said no matter what happens they will not be taken away because of how much it is helping the work move forward! It was pretty cool! But then they also talked a lot about marriage which was kind of weird. He talked a lot about when we get married, even if your wife is WRONG she is RIGHT! Which I already knew because we hear that all of the time. But something really cool that he said is that our mission really does train us for marriage because if we can get along with our companions, then we will most likely be able to get along with our ETERNAL COMPANION! :) So far I think that I am doing a really good job with that, but I am going to really try to become a PRO at it by the time my mission is done! IT WAS AN AWESOME TRAINING! Oh, and on Thursday we had a mission tour where Elder Schweitzer talked to the whole mission, and he talked a lot about the same thing. But it was super cool! THAT WAS MY LAST MISSION TOUR ON MY MISSION! It is so weird to say that!

Other than that we are really working on finding new people to teach right now because our teaching pool is struggling right now. We are trying to get the members involved but it just doesn't seem to be going as smoothly as we expected it. Oh well though! We are going to keep on trying different things and I know that something will be able to work! I have also been working with a couple that was in Jason's mission in Phili! Ask him if he remembers Elder Bryce Esplin. Him and his wife are both members of the ward that I am serving in right now and we have gone over there a lot since I have been here. They are super cool people and told them that I would tell Jason hi for them! It was really cool to find that out! :)

I love you guys like crazy and don't know what I would ever do without such a supportive family. I have seen so many families get torn apart on my mission so far and I never want any of that for my family! It is so good for me to be able to see this while I am still young so that I know what not to do! Love you!

Love,

Elder Wallentine