Mommy!!!

Thank you for that awesome letter once again even though I seem to say that every time that I write to you! :) I think that game sounds super fun where you have to use a word from the Bible Dictionary in a door approach! We will have to try that for sure some time! But as for the whole Punching game, we are not hurt yet, so it is still all fun and games! I am having a blast here in Maricopa still with Elder May! Most of the time when you are together with a companion it gets to the point where you just get completely sick of each other, but it is really cool because we are super good friends! It is going to be a super fun rest of the transfer, and hopefully we stay for a couple of transfers! :)

This past week was a little bit less busy then what we would prefer but we were able to go and talk to a ton of the members, and get to know the area a little bit better! It was an amazing week in that way! We also had ANOTHER zone meeting where Elder May and I trained and we had some of the sisters put together a "Title of Liberty" for the Maricopa zone that has all of our goals written down on it! It turned out super cool! Now the same sisters have a member in their ward that works at like a screen printing store and we are all going and getting shirts to get some stuff printed on them today! I will be sure to take a picture in it so that you know what they say! :) They will be super Legit!!! I am super excited for Thanksgiving this week because this morning we got off the phone with President Toone and he said that we can watch a MOVIE!!! :) I have not been able to watch a movie my entire mission so far, so it is going to be really cool, and super fun for sure! We are debating on weather we want to watch like "Secondhand Lions" or "Frozen" so we will see what everyone wants to do!

I promised that I would send you a ton of the pictures that Elder May and I have taken so I will sent those to you now!!! We have taken TONS of pictures for sure!!! Love you so much Mom!!!

Love you tons,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!!!

I am so grateful for little things and big things that help our testimonies of the gospel have a chance to grow! It is impossible to not believe that God loves us!!! I use the story about the missionaries coming to our hotel in Belgium a ton when we are teaching with members, and investigators both. It is so amazing!!! I also told the story that dad told to us about when he was in the Branch Presidency and was asked to make a comment in the branch meeting. I love that story because obviously the Spirit whispered to dad what he needed to say! It is so amazing how such little things take such high priority in God's eyes, just because he knows that it would mean the world to us! :D

One amazing thing that I have learned on my mission is how important preparation really is! When we get up in the morning we have a strict schedule!!! We get up at 6:30 to exercise, then we have to be all ready for the day by 8:00. Right at 8:00 we have personal study time where we get to spiritually prepare ourselves for the day, and all of our lessons that are going to be happening that day. It is such an amazing time, and it is so important to not only have our bodies ready for what is going to be happening that day, but we NEED to be spiritually ready as well! As we study and prepare for our lessons, not all of the lessons will go exactly the way that we studied for. But it is really cool because when we prepare something, God will help us and tell us what exactly needs to be said, and he will tell us when exactly we need to say it!!!

This week has been pretty eventful for me as well! :) We had a great P Day on last Monday! We all got together as a Zone and played some capture the flag, and soccer. That was super fun because all of us in this zone are just super happy to be here! I have really noticed since I have been here in this area how much attitude really affects people. Elder May and myself have really been trying to keep the HYPE up about missionary work, and it has worked miracles so far! :) We are focusing on asking everyone that we come in contact with for referrals!!! This morning when we talked with President Toone on the phone our zone got called out for having a ton of referrals! It was really cool because that is one of the biggest things that we are focusing on right now! We are already seeing miracles happen in the zone because of our focus!!!

On Wednesday we had something super crazy happen! So our bishop gave us some lists of some people to go by. So naturally we are going to go by anybody that the Bishop tells us too, since he is basically awesome!!! But when we stopped by one of the houses the people didn't answer... SHOCKER... however, Elder May introduced me to a game called "Prius Punch" and so we have been playing that game ever since we have been companions for the past week and a half!!! There was a Prius in the driveway across the street from the house that we had just knocked on. So needless to say, I saw it first and yelled, "PRIUS PUNCH!!!" and hit Elder May in the arm. But then is when the cool thing happened. After I did that I turned to Elder May and said, "Hey, lets go by that house with the Prius in the driveway!" He agreed and we walked up and knocked on the door! A guy came to the door, and before he could say anything NOT 1 BUT 2, Great Danes came out of the house and we started to pet them! They were super cool and of course they were super HUGE... I guess that is why they are called GREAT Danes haha... But after the dogs went back inside we introduced ourselves and he LET US IN!!! We started talking to him a little bit and found out that his wife's' family are members, and they actually have some cousins that are out on missions right now! It was a really cool experience and we are really trying to meet up with them again soon! He told us that for the next visit he is going to have his wife there too! I am super stoked!!! 

You're the best and I am so glad that I know that I have your support!!! :) SEE YOU ON CHRISTMAS!!! 

Love you tons!!

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!!!

So this week was super crazy because we had a ton of things going on, plus Halloween, and then Saturday was just an all around awesome day to be a missionary for me! :) To start off it was transfer call Sunday (yesterday) and I got a call to get transferred out of the area that I am serving in right now. I am thinking that I will either go to Maricopa, or I will go into Gilbert to be with Elder May! :) That would be so amazing but I am trying not to get my hopes up in case that does not happen! :D

But on Saturday and Sunday this past week we had stake conference and this time it was a little bit different because on the Sunday session there was a broadcast from Salt Lake with Elder Christofferson, President Uchtdorf, and some other people. First the stake president talked to us and then the rest of the time it was the broadcast for all of the stakes in the state of Arizona! :) It was really cool. What I really got out of it is that they were telling people that the tribulation that is going on right now in the world is not ending, but it is getting worse, and the devil is making new ways to harm us as children of God. It was a little bit scary to think about, but I am so glad that even though we hear that stuff we can know that Heavenly Father will ALWAYS be there for us!

On Friday since it was Halloween we had to be inside by 6pm because they didn't want us out with a bunch of trick or treaters, and it would be a little bit dangerous for missionaries to be out I guess! So we went inside and played some board games and stuff! :) Right when we got in the house we got out some silly string that one of our members gave to us and sprayed down the other two elders that live with us! It was so funny to see their reactions! :) Then we played the game "The Settlers of Zarahemla" It was super fun and it ended up just being me and one of the other Elders, Elder Johnson that played with me. The others were being party poopers! :) haha But that is fine haha!!!

Anyways I will cut to the chase of what happened on Saturday! It was amazing because 2 days before on Thursday I found out that Ian and Stafnie (people that I taught over in Temple) were getting baptized at 10:00am in the morning on Saturday! But then we had tickets to go up to the Phoenix Temple Open House with some members and that family that we have been teaching, and it is a 1 hour trip up there, and our tickets were for 11:30am. So we went to the baptism, left before they even got baptized, drove all they way back here to Mesa to meet up with our members, and headed up to the Temple. It was so amazing to be able to go up there and especially to be able to go up there with some investigators! :) They loved it!!! Then the members took all of us out to eat at Olive Garden which was super good because I had never ever been there before! :) It was an awesome week and I wish that I could go into it a little bit more. But don't worry I also wrote it in my journal!!! :)

Love you tons!!!

Elder Wallentine