Mommy!!!

Hey mom this week was super cool because we were able to have an awesome baptism which was probably one of the most smooth running baptisms that I have had in my entire mission so far! It was awesome! :) The guy that got baptized was so ready and he just didn't even know how ready he was a few weeks ago. He had gone through about 3 years worth of missionaries and continued to pray and came to church and stuff like that, but just didn't know for sure if this was the right path for him yet. It was super cool when we were able to teach him and that he came to the conclusion that he did not need a big sign to know that it was true but he just needed to put all of the little things together! :) It was an amazing experience to teach him. Every single person that we are able to help like that just makes my testimony build even bigger and even though I have a testimony that the Gospel and Church is true, it never hurts to have it built up a little bit more!

Other than that though we still had a super good and eventful week this past week! We were able to come in contact with the lady that referred herself to us which was really cool and we were able to go over and teach her a little bit more as well as her family! They are so awesome and it is amazing how fast you can grow to love people as you help them come a little bit closer to Christ! It is so awesome and it is especially awesome that they are actually keeping the reading assignments that we give them and also doing more on top of that! They are an awesome family! :) I can just tell that they really do want to know if this is really true! 

We were also able to go and do a ton of service on Saturday and also found out a little bit more of how the whole mission leadership works when we are here! :) We moved 2 people in one morning, and then also went and helped the ward with a big project that they were doing! It was super fun because when we are able to go and do things like that we are, first of all, able to go and get out of our church clothes for a while, but then we are able to also meet people that would never be open to us in the white shirts and ties! :) Its awesome! But over all it was a super good week and to finish it today we went to Cafe Rio today and there were like a ton of people there that were members of the church, some of them were ladies and they came over to our table while we were eating and said that they were going to take some pics of us and send them to our moms! I do not know your phone number so I gave them Dad's and they are going to send all of the pics to him and then both of you can see them! :) It is super fun when people want to do that though! :D

Anyways I love you so much and cannot wait to hear from you guys again next week! 

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Mommy!!!

That was super awesome on Friday night when I got to see Jason! I didn't really know what to think when I saw him with the bag of goodies that he got for me, but I also did not know if I was allowed to get out and talk to him or anything. It was super fun to see him though, and it is super weird because that is the first time that I have actually seen any of you in person for just over 15 months. :) It was super fun though! Even though I stayed in the car I still really enjoyed that! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 

It was really funny though because I thought since I had just seen Jason I should probably call President Toone and just let him know how it all played out and stuff! I tried to call him a couple times but there was no answer, so I decided to call the Assistants. I called them and said, "Hey, so I just tried to call President Toone and there was no answer. But, I thought that I should probably call and just let you guys and him know that my brother just stopped by my house and dropped off some junk food for me." They then said, "Oh dang!!! Well thanks for letting us know, and make sure that you let President Toone know when you can." Then they asked, "Did you get out and give him a hug?" I said, "Ummm... No, I stayed in the car like I was supposed too." Then they said, "Oh man you totally should have given him a hug!" But it was totally cool because I didn't know that I could so I just thought that I would stay safe! :D Then when I got in touch with President Toone he said about the same thing as the assistants! Which I thought was super funny for sure! That was a funny night.

The work here in this area is for sure picking up though now! It is getting to be really fun to get closer and closer to the members of the ward here, and they are all just super nice, and getting more missionary minded every day it seems like! It is way cool to see! As far as "Meet the Mormons" goes we don't have any handouts yet because they want it to be more of the members tool right now to get their friends out to it. 

We have a baptism for a guy that we are teaching right now coming up on Friday! :) That is going to be super cool because It seems like it has been forever since I have actually had someone that I am teaching get baptized, even though it was only like 2 transfers ago! haha

I am super excited for our stake conference coming up in early November! We are going to be trained on the exact same thing and we were able to go and assign one of the missionaries in our zone to stand up and give a talk at the Saturday night session on some success stories and hastening the work of salvation! It will be super cool because they are also probably going to give me and my companion the chance to get up and bear our testimonies on the work of salvation also since we are the zone leaders! It should be a super cool experience, and I am super excited for it! But I totally agree that the youth and the members are completely key to finding the elect people, and also just to the work of salvation in general. It is really cool just how much faster people work toward baptism when they have friends in the church, and when they are being encouraged from not only the missionaries, but all of their friends, and leaders in the church. It helps a ton!!!

I am currently teaching this girl over SKYPE who lives in Idaho right now and was meeting with the missionaries over there for a while.  I am really enjoying finding not only people that I can help in this area, but also if people need help in other parts of the world that we and the other missionaries in that area can totally be there for them! I really love that quote that you posted! "FAITH IS A CHOICE! CHOOSE FAITH OVER DOUBT!" I think that is so powerful and it is amazing how much that can really help if you just put your faith before your doubts. I am currently reading in the New Testament and it is amazing just how in the very beginning of Matthew there are so many miracles performed by Christ. But none of those miracles could have come to pass if the person on the receiving end did not at least have a little bit of faith that they could be healed.

I read a section in Matthew this week that really helped me though. There are always temptations in the world whether you are a missionary or not. Even when Jesus Christ was on the earth He did not go without being tempted by the adversary. It is super sad because although they are brothers, Satan just kept on bashing Christ with these chances to prove himself. He tells him that if he is the Son of God then he will take some rocks and he will turn them into bread. But Jesus does not give in. He does not even try to fight back, or argue. He simply says something to the affect of; Men cannot live by bread alone, but they also need the word of god in their lives. It is just another testimony builder that if we truly do follow the example of Jesus Christ even after baptism, we will be able to know Him better, and we WILL be able to make it to live with our Heavenly Father again! I love that!!!

Well mom thank you for the awesome letter and I really appreciate all that you guys do for me and how much you show your love to me as I am away from home! I love you all tons!!! :)

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!!!

I was so happy that this week went by fast, but at the same time think it would have been nice for it to have been a little bit longer! We were able to go and see a lot of the people that we are actively teaching and helping right now, including that lady that I told you about! She is so awesome! Her aunt and cousin actually came to church with her this Sunday to help her get a little bit more comfortable which was super cool! They wanted to get a picture of us with her outside of the church which was super funny I thought! :D

It started out as a really good week because on every 1st and 3rd Sunday one of the members of the stake that is over the missionary work invited all of the missionaries in the Stake over to have a little correlation meeting and he also has root beer floats! It is always really fun because they are really trying to focus on making this stake have the happiest missionaries in the entire mission! I like it a lot!!! :P 

Then on Tuesday we had Zone Meeting and so Elder Hardy (my companion), Sister Homer (the sister training leader), and I did a training on making sure that we do our best to get the Spirit there and allow it to testify to those that we are teaching! We had 3 scenarios that we put the missionaries in. The 1st one was in a messy home with the TV on and toys all over the place. This was a different environment because when a home is messy and unorganized then it is a ton harder, and almost impossible for the person getting taught to feel of the Spirit. Then we set up another room as a clean home with a center piece, some pictures of Jesus Christ, and also some couches that would be comfortable. We were able to feel the Spirit a lot stronger in that environment. Then the last one was in the church building giving someone a tour of the church. When we walked into the Chapel it was amazing the Spirit that we felt. It felt literally like it is described in the Mormon message "The Hope of Gods Light" and it was an amazing experience! :) It really does make a huge difference to make sure that our environments are good! It can make the difference between feeling the Spirit and not being able to feel it at all!

We also got to watch the movie MEET THE MORMONS as a mission on Wednesday which was super cool! We got to see it before everyone else because they wanted us to see what was going on so that when people have questions about it we will be able to know how to answer them! It was a really fun time and if you have not seen that movie yet you need to go and see it as soon as you can! It was amazing!!! Anyways, I love you tons and my toe is doing a lot better now! I hope that you guys all have a good week and make sure to tell everybody hi for me!!! Love you Jason, Katie, Izzy, Ryan, Ashley, Brandon, Collette, Emmett, Tyler, Emily, Caleb, Mom, and Dad!!! You all are the BEST!!!

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Mommy!!!

Thank you so much for the awesome letter that you sent me once again! It was super crazy because we never really did figure out why the conference call last week was having so many big problems. It was just trying to be a pain I guess. ;) I think it was probably more operator error than anything since there were like 28 people trying to operate it at the exact same time that seems like a pretty safe bet! haha It went a lot better this morning though because I got the names of all of the Zone Leaders that I am supposed to call from now on, so then I don't have to deal with all of the frustration of getting all of the Zones together. :D That made me a little bit happier!!!

This week was a super crazy week though. Usually on Mondays it is super hard to find something to do because we are only out from 6-9 and most of the members are having FHE at that time so we can't really go and visit them unannounced or anything. haha But last Monday was one of the best Mondays that I have had in my entire mission so far because we were able to find a member of the ward that would be willing to come with us to a lesson that we had set up with this awesome lady who has been coming to church for a while with here aunt in a different area! She is really cool and I can't wait because we are meeting with her again today!!! :D I love days that you are just running around constantly trying to get around to all of the appointments that you have set up for that day. It is the best feeling ever when you are busy!

Conference was AWESOME this year! I never would have thought back home that conference would go by so fast, or that I would enjoy it so much while I am here on my mission. I loved these last sessions of conference. I found out that if I am not constantly doing something with my hands, or just moving in general I get super distracted, and lose focus really fast. So during conference I was taking lots of notes on paper instead of my iPad, and then I also started to doodle. I drew almost all of the speakers on the paper that I was taking notes on! It was super fun!!! :P 

One thing that really stood out to me is "STAY IN THE BOAT!" I thought that was super cool because there are so many things that you can get caught up on and if you just jump out of the "boat" then you cannot expect to ever understand it. God is always here to help us, and he will never turn his back on us, but if we jump out of the boat and turn our backs on Him, He cannot help us like He wants too. I love the Mormon message "Wrong Roads" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland because it explains super well that blessings don't always come when we want them. Same with answers to our prayers. He says, "Some come soon, some come late, and some don't come til heaven. But they come!" That is so awesome to be able to know that God loves us so much that He WILL answer all of our prayers, and He WILL bless us as we follow His commandments!

So tomorrow I am going out to the Foot Doctor again to get my other toe looked at and get rid of another ingrown toe. I'm sure it will be just as enjoyable as the last time I had it done, and I am sooooo excited... NOT!!! :) But one thing that is really cool is that the Dr. that is going to be helping me is Dr. Crezee who I'm not sure if you guys remember but I Skyped you from their home last Mothers day! They are super cool and it is going to be super fun to be able to see him again tomorrow! It will be awesome! I will make sure to send you guys pictures of it! 

I LOVE YOU TONS!!!

Love,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

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