Mommy!!!

Hey so you will for sure have to go and ask that missionary what his friends name is because we have 4 Elder Carters in the mission! :) But that is super cool that he knows someone that I probably know super well from serving around him. We have had some more super fun things go on this past week with us and President Toone for sure!!! But I will tell you about all of the crazy adventures this past week.

So we had a super regular and kind of slow first part of the week... It was really good thought because we actually got to go out and teach some awesome people in our area and we actually ended up finding a few new people to teach and also contacted a few people that the members of the ward have been having a super hard time contacting too! :) That was a super awesome way to start off the week. Then to wrap up this past week on Saturday I got to go and pick up Elder May for a baptism that was down in Maricopa of a guy that Elder May, Belnap, and myself all taught while we were down there. He is such a cool guy and his son got baptized while I was still serving there, but his time finally came and he knows that what he has been learning is totally true!!! He bore such a powerful testimony at the end of his baptism and it just confirmed to me that the Lord will for sure prepare people in his time. It was a really good experience to be able to go back for that baptism.

So, then if that isn't crazy enough that I got to go back down to Maricopa, you will not even guess where else we went this week... ;) Soooo... There are like a ton of temples around our mission boundaries and I have so far been to the Mesa Temple, Gilbert Temple, and the Phoenix Temple. What other temples would we be able to go to you might ask? :D So after months of President Toone trying to get us permission to go, and after he pulled a few strings we were able to go to one more temple on Monday that was probably my favorite one of all time! On Sunday after church we drove a van down to Yuma Arizona to have the last of all the training in the mission this transfer. We have really been focusing on the Mormon Battalion and the trails that they went on, and it just so happens that we found a really cool museum that goes over a lot of the stuff that happened to the battalion in San Diego California!!! :) So on Sunday night we stayed in Yuma in a Holiday Inn Hotel, and then Monday morning we got up at about 5:00am and ate breakfast/met up with all of the Yuma missionaries, and we all headed out to go to the San Diego Temple! It was probably one of the coolest  things that I have been able to do since I have been on my mission. It is the most beautiful place that I have ever seen, inside and out. We stayed there for a little while and took some good pictures that I will send to you next week, and then we headed out and went to the museum of the Mormon Battalion where Elder Belnap thinks that he might have met his future wife... ;) JK It was super fun though! We got back today and we are for sure exhausted and ready to get back to working in our area though. It was such a good experience to go to the temple and have a mission President that holds the Temple so sacred that he wants us all to understand what happens there. It is an awesome feeling!

Sorry that the email isn't longer and that you are getting it a day late... We did get permission thought to email you today since we missed out on yesterday though so don't worry! ;) I love you tons!!!

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!

Holy cow!!! I was reading the story of Coco and that scared the heck out of me! I am so glad that everything worked out and that she ended up being ok. I could not even imagine being Caleb in that situation and seeing Coco like that... That would be so hard to see someone go through that. I hope that both Coco, and Caleb are doing alright now. Good thing they have an awesome Mom/Grandma to look out for them! :) It is awesome to have a mom who whenever we get sick or need anything you always know what will make us feel better. Thanks so much!

That is also super crazy that Parker Hansen is going to Russia. That is going to be a super cool experience for him! Probably a little bit scary looking at it from this point, but it is really cool how missionaries can go all over the world and be safe. Not many other people can have the comfort that we can have as we leave to go on our missions. Even though I just stayed in the United States I have still never felt so safe, but so threatened in my life. It is so crazy how both of those feelings can exist at the same time... But it is cool to know for sure! :P 

This past week we had a ton of stuff to get done... After the hike on Monday, (which by the way was AMAZING) we went and tried to get all of the rest of the stuff that we needed to get done on out p day finished, and we ended up not getting back from the hike until about 2:00. So we didn't get to go shopping or anything, but President and Sister Toone took us out to dinner that night which was really fun. We got to talk about how the hike went and how some of the missionaries are adjusting to being out here on their missions. It was a cool time to just talk with them for sure! But then that night after dinner we had to go and drive around the valley and drop off all of the supplies that we gathered from the members to use on the hike. So that was basically our Monday haha. 

Then on Tuesday through Thursday we had the rest of the Zone Conferences and we ended up traveling to Casa Grande, and Yuma! It was super fun going on a little road trip with President and Sister Toone because we had like 3 hours there and back that we could just talk to them and get to know them better. Oh and you will have to remind me when I get home to show you a little video that  we took of a joke that President Toone told us! :) It is super funny!!! But yeah that is basically my week! Sorry it is not super descriptive... It is a lot different being in the office and stuff. It for sure tries to teach you how to balance your time a little bit better! I love you tons! Thanks for being awesome! :)

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

We got to stay in a hotel when we went down to Yuma so we all got some hot chocolate and sat down at some tables by the pool for a little while! :) It was awesome!!! (Don't worry... we didn't go swimming)

Mommy!!

It was so much fun to get to talk to all of you yesterday! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY AGAIN!!! Even though Dad wasn't able to be there for all of it I know that he does still love you a ton just like all of your kids do. I love you tons mom, and sometimes it for sure takes leaving home to realize how much you actually do for us so THANK YOU! :D I know that you probably didn't hear that from me enough while I was home but I do mean that. It was so fun how much Collette and Izzy can talk now! My companions and I thought that it was super funny how they were telling us stories and stuff like that! They can for sure talk your ear off haha. I could imagine that they have tons to say when Uncle Brandon isn't in the room too! They are the best!!!

I know that we told you most of the stuff that we did this past week in the Skype call... so there isn't a whole ton that comes to mind of what to write about haha. But we did go on the hike today on the Mormon Battalion Trail and we had a super good experience! We had to go around and pick up a ton of canopies so that when we had a little presentation on the trail we would not all get baked so we did that all last night, and then picked up 2 missionaries that were going to be coming with us in the morning. Then we all woke up this morning at 3:30am and were out the door in the car by 3:50am so that we could make it down to Maricopa in time to set everything up on the trail. We ended up  getting to the trail by about 5:00am and got everything set up by about 6:15am. It was a little bit crazy because we had to drive the car in on the trail and on the trail there were like 2 big sand pits that we were a little worried about getting stuck in. Since I am a professional driver though I plowed right through the sand and made it to the destination! :) It was awesome!!!

When we all got in on the trail and we got to the place where the presentation on the Mormon Battalion was being given we all sat down and got ready to listen. There was a guy that came out and he is an expert on the mormon battalion. He was dressed up like the members of the battalion would be dressed, and had the weapons and nifty little gadgets that they had too. It ended up being really cool! That is something that I think would be super cool to learn more about! One thing that he pointed out is that the Lord will always provide!!! He shared a story of some of the people on the trail who had their carts being pulled by oxen. They entered into like a bog area and the two oxen ended up getting stuck in the mud... One of them got out safely with some help, but the other one when they attempted to get it out of the mud they accidentally broke its neck and it died. They did not know what they were going to do, so they said a prayer and asked their Father in Heaven for help and then went to bed. When they woke up in the morning they found 2 young oxen wandering around their camp with a yoke already on them. :) It is so amazing how the Lord will always cover what we need and he is always willing to help us out! That goes for feelings that we have too. If we begin to think negative thoughts, and begin to question some of the things in life that we know the adversary will work hard to morph it into something way more severe than it really is. But it is hard to overcome that without Gods help. You could even say it is impossible to overcome by yourself! Continue to know that He does love you and He knows you personally! If you ever question anything turn to him in prayer and he WILL help! I love you tons Mom and keep being the BEST MOM EVER!!!

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!!!

I never realized how much time just to think and time by yourself is needed until I came out on a mission... Especially as one of the assistants we really never have any time to relax, which in a way is good because it makes time seem like it is flying. But when I get home I am for sure going to be looking forward to an awesome date with my bed! :) But until then I will keep on hitting the pavement for sure! It is super fun being in this area still though so I am doing well!

This week was a little bit more relaxed than the last week. We had some training's that we had to give on Thursday, and Friday which was pretty fun but other than that it was a pretty chill week. On Thursday we had another MLC which we had to give a little training at and it ended up going super well. We ended up breaking up into three groups of missionaries depending on what they wanted to work on the most this next transfer. For example my group focused on Teaching People and Not Lessons from PMG. It was awesome just to be able to talk personally with a big group of the missionaries. It was super cool and now we are just going to be focusing more on PMG for the rest of the transfer to get all of the missionaries PUMPED again which will be a BLAST!!!

Then the training that we gave on Friday was for all of the missionaries that have only been out for about 6 or 12 weeks, so the new missionaries in the field. Every 6 weeks we will get them together to make sure that their training is going well and get them to have a little bit of fun. We prepared some fun get to know you games that we ended up playing with them, and then we made a really fun game where they pretended to teach each other in different ways. I will have to explain it later because it is super hard to explain how it worked over writing. haha

Other than that I am super stoked to be able to see you guys this upcoming Sunday!!! It seems like I just got to talk to you guys. It is going to be so much fun to get to see all of the little kids on Sunday and I am really looking forward to this last Skype home before I am on the down hill stretch. Crazy to think that this will be the last time I will see you guys when I am not actually with you in person!

Love you lots!!!

Elder Brandon Wallentine