8 Miles From the Sun

Hello Everyone,

Hey, so this week was a super good week! All of the sudden all of the weeks seem to be going by even faster than they were just a couple of months ago! It is super crazy. It is really nice when the week goes by fast though because then you know that you were busy. Which this week was one of the best weeks of my mission so far, which is also one of the busiest weeks of my mission.

Since I am the District Leader, I get to work with all of the Elders in my district for one day out of the transfer. So I got all of the exchanges all finished and I was able to go out into the other areas and see how the other missionaries in my District are doing. One of the exchanges was super fun! I went with a missionary named Elder Auna from Hawaii. He is just one of the coolest guys that I have ever met. We got along so well and were able to have a super fun exchange. We started off the exchange with a service project that we did for some members of his ward. His yard hadn't been covered with rocks yet so it was just dirt. So he bought about 4 tons of rocks and our job was to take the rocks with shovels and wheel barrows, and spread them all over the yard. That was super fun! It was just Elder Auna, the member, and myself doing all of the work and we got done in about 3.5 hours. It was a job well done for sure. That is one thing that I love out here, service. I love just getting down to business and getting a good physical job every once and a while! :) It is really relaxing, as weird as it sounds, for me to just go out and WORK!!! I LOVE IT!

Other than the other missionaries areas, our area is BOOMING right now! This week we set some pretty high expectations for how much we want to teach, and how much we want to find. But we didn't only meet the goals that we set, we EXCEEDED them! It was super awesome! I love the feeling that we get inside when we have a goal set and we are able to accomplish it!

On that note I gave a training to my District on Wishful thinking, and setting faith-filled goals. I realized that most of my mission so far I have been more wishful thinking. I noticed that the goals I have been setting would be really nice if I was able to meet them with my companion, but it probably wasn’t going to happen based on the background of the area. So in this new area in Tempe, I decided that I was going to learn how to set good faith-filled goals. I have done that and I looked to the past results and how all of the goals have been pushing us just enough to where we are growing. We started out teaching only about 3 lessons with a member present this transfer. Now 2 weeks ago we taught 9, and this last week we taught 16!!! :) It was so awesome! I love being a missionary! One thing that has really helped me so far is that President Toone has noticed a problem in the mission of missionaries calling their areas "Dead Areas" meaning that there is no work to be done there. But he counseled with us and told us to go into our areas and think POSITIVELY! So I did, and it has brought great results!

I have really grown these last couple of transfers and I know that it is because my Heavenly Father is really helping me to keep on moving forward with a positive attitude that I am always trying to have! I am so glad that I was able to know how to keep a positive attitude back home (most of the time). I think one thing that really helped me was working at Wahooz, although it sounds kinda weird. While I was working there we are always supposed to look excited and happy. So that just kinda got me in the habit of smiling! Then on top of that they always wanted us running around and staying busy everywhere that we went which really got me to work hard! It was AWESOME!!! :D

Happy Fathers Day Dad! Thanks for being the best dad that you could possibly be! I know that I am kinda a pain to deal with sometimes, but you did what you could to help me. I know that if it wasn’t for you teaching me discipline, and showing me how to work hard that I would have a harder time on my mission today. I know that at the end of the day it was my choice to come out on a mission, but it sure made it a lot easier for me when I had an awesome Dad that served, and two brothers after you! Thanks for everything and I love you Dad! :)

Love,

Elder Wallentine!

P.S. TOMORROW IS MY 11 MONTH MARK OUT HERE IN THE MISSION FIELD! CRAZY! Oh and the picture of me in a pink shirt is of when we had a zone activity! We went and got super hero socks, V-necks, Bandannas, and we wore a tie! It was awesome!