Mommy!!!

It has been really cool to have Facebook on my mission because now I am able to go and reach out to the people that we know who are struggling as well as the people that live here in Arizona. It is pretty cool to know that we can do that now! If there is a way that I can help out with anyone you know, let me know and we will set up something where I can Skype soon! I am currently going to be skyping with one of my friends really soon to catch up, and see how everything in life is going! I am super excited for that! :) 

Oh so about going to the temple with that lady from Maryvale... President Toone tried to get permission for me to go from Salt Lake and they said that since it is outside of our mission boundaries I can't go. :( That was super sad. I was really hoping that I would be able to go but I know that it will still be an awesome experience for her when she goes through the temple for the first time! :) I sent her a little Facebook message and she is super excited to go. It will be awesome! :) 

This past week was a really good week because we were able to teach more people this week than we have taught in the 4 months that I have been here in this area with Elder May! The people that we are teaching right now are all super cool and we have a lot of cool baptisms coming up in the near future!!! :D I am really excited because it seems like we have known these people for such a long time and we just know them so well. It will be amazing to see them enter into the waters of baptism soon! One super cool thing that we did this week again though is we got to go and play some more basketball with a young man who is like 14 years old, and we brought one of the Priests in the ward over to play also. I was on the 14 year old's team and we DEMOLISHED!!! We won 4 times in a row which was super fun! I am going to be so good at basketball by the time that I get home! 

But enough about sports and stuff. Back to the stuff that really matters... I am still loving my mission and I was thinking and talking to Elder May the other day and I realized that I have never just been like a regular missionary... ;) It was super funny to think about. I have now been a ZL for like 7 1/2 months which is super weird to think about. I can't wait til I can just be a normal missionary, or be a trainer again. I hope that I get to do that again before I come home. I love training new missionaries!!! But I guess we will see if that is what President Toone wants from me or not! ;P I just got an email from Brenden (Elder Elwood) and he was talking about how crazy it is that I go home in like 4 1/2 months already... I imagine by this time his trainer is giving him all the new "greenie" jokes about still having like 21 months left on his mission. That was always so annoying for the first little while! But he sounds like he is doing good work and killin it in Argentina!!! I am so glad that he went out on a mission!

Love you tons! Tell everybody hi for me and that I love them all! :)

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!!!

Thank you so much for all of the help. :)  I love being a missionary and it is super crazy that I only have 5 months left now. TIME IS FLYING BY SO FAST!!!

That movie is so inspiring and just makes you want to be the best that you can possibly be for sure! After seeing how many hardships that the saints crossing the plains went through it really makes the things in my life seem like I should be able to get through them easy. But, then you also have to realize that although there may not be the same kind of struggles today, the ones that have replaced them have become just as bad. There is for sure some super scary stuff in the world today... But yeah he is the one that stood and said that he is ready right then to go and help the saints. I hope that I can be worthy to be able to get such amazing promptings in my life if necessary. It is really cool just to think of how important that task was, and how Brigham Young knew that he could trust him because of his strict obedience to the commandments of God. 

That is a super good talk about the Atonement though. It always seems that people think that Christ will just take all of their burdens away, and everything will just be hunky dory for the rest of forever. But more people  need to realize that just because we can repent and the gospel of Jesus Christ is always there for us, we WILL still have struggles in our life. The struggles can always be overcome, but the loads that come from the struggles will not always just be done away with. But just like Elder Bednar said without the loads there are some things that we would just be stuck in. Sometimes we need some loads on our shoulders to keep us going on the right path. When I think of that I always think of my investigators and how I can connect with them. It always seems like it is so much easier for converts to connect with people because they have seen the other side of things. If I had not had some of the experiences that I have had in the past, I may not be able to help those people that really need to be uplifted here. We are all given experience and struggles for a reason, and I think that 9 times out of 10 we have them to go out and help others! :D But as far as "Meet the Mormons" goes it is amazing with how many people are touched by it. One person that we are teaching actually was super cool with that movie because it shows so many different perspectives on what Mormons are like all around the world! Its super cool! :)

 LOVE YOU ALL TONS! Love you Mom, Dad, Jason, Katie, Izzy, Ryan, Ashley, Bob, Coco, Emmett, Tyler, Emily and Caleb! Y'all are the BOMB! 

Love,

Elder Brandon Walletine

P.S. I got the package!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! The cookies were delicious!

One of the missionaries that we live with--his mom was down here in AZ for something and she heart  attacked our door while we were all sleeping inside! 

Mommy!!!

Thank you so much for sharing all of those cool stories with me! It is always so amazing how Heavenly Father uses us and the message that we prepare to get a super important message to others. We had another MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) this past week and we talked a ton about obedience and also using the Holy Ghost to his full potential. President Toone is feeling that the missionaries are getting too caught up in the deeper doctrine of the church rather than just focusing on the simple things. It is so amazing how when you just focus on the basics and the fundamentals of the gospel everything starts to make sense. We do not need to know all everything to know that this gospel is true. We do need to know enough that we can trust our Heavenly Father as we get down on our knees to pray though. That is one of the biggest things ever!!! If we are humble enough to get down on our knees and ask for help, it will come.

I had a really cool experience just last night and this morning! We are now planning for another training that we have to do tomorrow, and I have been stressing out about it again. I think it is probably similar to how you were feeling about getting up and giving a talk. ;) I woke up this morning and got ready for the day, and then realized that I really have not gotten down on my knees to pray for my morning studies in a couple of days. I just sat in my chair usually. But this morning I felt like I needed a little bit of extra help, so I got down on my knees next to my desk and just asked for anything that I needed. I specifically asked to be guided to some places where I could find more information on how to receive answers from the Holy Ghost. As soon as I finished my prayer I started writing down in my study journal what I thought. I got a few scriptures down and some plans for the training, but then my mind went completely blank... :/ So I got down on my knees and prayed AGAIN! This time I had something amazing happen! I immediately thought of my Patriarchal blessing. So I pulled out my blessing and began to read and write down some of the things that stuck out to me. In the beginning it tells me that as I read my Patriarchal blessing my mind will be cleared and I will be able to receive promptings from the Holy Ghost. It was that experience mixed with Sunday nights experience that got me... On Sunday night we were able to have some of the people that we are teaching come to the church and watch "Ephraims Rescue" with them. Ephraim in the movie is an amazing priesthood holder that always tries to do what is right. He realizes that he is not perfect, but he can get as close to perfect as he possibly can by following the teachings of the prophets. He is exactly obedient and does anything that they ask! Because of his STRICT OBEDIENCE he is able to perform miracles for the pioneers that are crossing the planes. In my Patriarchal Blessing it tells me that I am from the tribe of Ephraim. I know that I have been called to share the gospel and what I know is true to all of the people in the area that I am currently serving in! I am not sure if it really made sense how I explained my experiences, but I guess that is what happens when a 19 year old tries to talk right? ;)

I am so glad that I am out here on my mission and I am going to continue to make these last 5 months some of the best months of my mission!!! It will be amazing! LOVE YOU TONS!!!

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!!!

Thank you for sending me all of that information about the new Insurance that I am on now! :) I am going back into the Dr. today just for a little check up to make sure that it is healing how it should be! But it is feeling so good and we were able to play some basketball this past week without my toe even bothering me a little bit. It was awesome to be able to do that again for sure! Oh and BT-Dubs I am basically killing it out here when we get to go and play basketball with people! There are a couple of people that we are teaching right now who are like high school kids, and they will not talk to us unless we play basketball with them. We played like 4 games in a row with them and beat them every time!!! It was a blast though! When you are out doing the same thing every day for 18 months, it is really amazing how much better it feels when you get a little bit of time to go and play some games like that! It really puts things in perspective!

OH and about the bed bug problem... THEIR BACK!!! So when I thought that they were gone because we haven't been being bit, I laid down in my bed and slept until about 2:30 am on night, and then woke up because I my neck was itching. I got up and looked in the mirror and I had HUGE bites all over my left shoulder and the right side of my neck. :( That was super lame... So then I put some toothpaste on the bites and went back to sleep on the living room floor. It actually reminded me of on Sundays when I would always just lay on our living room floor and sleep until dinner time! Those naps always felt so good, and it will be nice when I can take naps again for sure! But we are going to talk to the housing people again today to see if we can get it all figured out.

I have not been getting Elder Elwood's emails lately so if you could like forward them out to me that would be super cool of you for sure!!! Oh and before I forget I have some good news. . .. Transfer calls came on Tuesday night and Elder May and I are staying together again!!! It was super surprising because I have never been with a companion for more that 2 transfers! But Elder May and I made it a huge point in our emails to President Toone for us to stay together for at least one more transfer! I am so happy!!! :D

This past week was super fun because we just were basically in Aww that we were staying together first of all, and we also got a new Elder in our house named Elder Mason from Virginia! He is a brand new missionary and he is super cool for sure. He reminds me a ton of Ryan. He is super big on like video games, and running, and all of the other kind of things that Ryan is into. He is also huge into computers and stuff like both Ryan and Tyler! It is really cool to be here with him and see how exciting it is for the new missionaries to come into the field! We are doing our very best to set a good example for him so that he knows what the mission expects of him! He is one of the most obedient elders that I have been with so far for sure! He is awesome!!! 

Anyways I am super stoked for this next week and all of the stuff that Arizona has in store for me!!! 

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

P.S. Elder Forson just finished his mission this last week... I am going to for sure keep in contact with that guy!!! :)