Hello Everyone!!!

So, we had a really exciting week this last week. It was awesome! First, we had JB at church with us again and he was ready for baptism.  He chose me to baptize him and he also wanted me to speak at his baptism! The service was so awesome and it was so cool to be able to have the experience to baptize him since I have been teaching him almost every day for the past 7 weeks! It was amazing! :) 

That night we got news that rather than not being able to go to the Gilbert temple open house, we are able to go once with an investigator and a member, so I am hoping that we will be able to make it! I am sure that we will! Then yesterday on Sunday JB got confirmed and then that night we were able to go with him to the Mission President Devotional where two very recent converts spoke and then the mission president and his counselor! It was so awesome and then after it was over JB told me that he wants me to talk to President Toone and ask him if he can speak at the next one coming up next month! It was awesome!

Thank you so much for all of those experiences that you shared with me and also for telling me that story about the missionaries! I love you guys so much and I am so happy that I chose to come out here on a mission even though some things are kinda crazy and really make you wonder why it is happening to you.  I know it all works out in the end and will be for the best!  Anyways, thank you a ton for everything!

Love you guys,

Elder Brandon Wallentine

Hello Everybody!!!

So this week was a pretty good week and it was for sure a busier week for us than the other weeks have been. Transfer calls were last night and we were almost positive that one of us would be transferred out but it seems that both of us are staying for at least another transfer. This will be the very first transfer that I am not being trained or training which will be a little bit weird. I really liked training and was kinda hoping that I would still be training again :) 

We continued to go over to that guy's house that we have been teaching, and he is doing amazing and growing more and more every single day! It was awesome because we got him interviewed and set up his baptismal program this last week.  He said that he wants me to speak at it and baptize him. :) I am super excited, especially because this is someone that I have been working with this entire transfer! He's awesome! 

We also had another really cool experience this week.  I was on exchanges leading out my area with the district leader and we were going around to some apartment complexes looking for some of the less-active families that live around there.  As we were walking back to the car, I heard someone yell, "HEY ARE YOU GUYS MORMONS?"  So I turned around and said, "YEAH WE ARE!"  So, she told us to come over. They told us that they have been looking for a church to attend.  They had been going to another church, but her boyfriend is a member of the Mormon church but just less-active. So we talked to them then and every day since then. They were able to make it to church yesterday and me and a member went and picked them up! It was a super cool experience and it was an awesome day yesterday!

So that meeting that we had on Saturday where Elder Holland was going to show up and talk to us and the two other missions still happened, but Elder Holland wasn't able to make it because he got called to be on another assignment that day.  Instead, we had Elder Wright from the Seventy come and talk to us as well as his wife and the three mission presidents and their wives! It was really cool because I also got to go and see Elder Erikson and Elder May again which was super fun! Me and Elder May have our futures all planned out already. We are both going to go to BYU-I, work on a potato farm, and then live in Idaho for the rest of our lives and be the classic Mormon friends that met on the mission! Its going to be awesome! :)  It is so much fun when we get together as a mission though! I love it! 

I am for sure getting way less homesick than I thought I would out here on the mission though! Every once in a while I get a tiny bit homesick, but when we are busy (which is all of the time) it is a ton easier to keep that off of my mind.  Anyways, thank you so much for all of the stuff that you guys do for me and all that you have done for me! 

LOVE YA,

Elder Wallentine

Hello Everyone!!!

Hey, thank you so much again for all of the treats!  It is lasting me quite a while, so it is awesome! Me and my companion got moved again this last week, so now we live on the other side of our area!  I also received a little package of letters from the primary the other day! That was so fun for me to read the little notes that Caleb and the other kids put inside of it! I didn't even realize that some of those kids would even remember me! haha 

That is really cool about the ward fast you had for missionary opportunities because that is something that we are trying to work on right now as well--finding people to teach! We are still teaching the guy that we have been visiting for a while and he is so awesome! I cannot wait for his baptism and it is exciting me so much! He is so awesome! Last night when we went over there he told us that he's noticed that ever since we have been coming over, it has changed him.  He didn't think he was selfish, but he realized that now he is putting other people's needs before his.  Even in little things like cutting someone off in the parking lot of a store.  It is really cool for me to  see how people become better once the gospel of Jesus Christ is in their lives! It is such a blessing to have people like that in your life to make everything else worth while! 

This week I was thinking about things I miss about home--my family and friends, and wearing my basketball shorts and t-shirts every day.  But there is nothing better than being here right now!  It is awesome! Our church schedule got changed to 9 o'clock so we have some early meetings which gets us up and ready really quick! :) The members here in the ward are super nice and we went over and visited some of them this past week.  We walked into one and they gave us some apple pie, ice cream, and ice cold water! It was awesome!  Then we went to Ross today, and I found this nerf gun which is really fun since the whole zone basically has them so we can have giant nerf wars! 

There are not as many stories for me to tell like I had from Maryvale! Everybody here in Ahwatukee calls Maryvale Scary-ville! Hahahah It is so funny! I love it!!! Well, I love you guys and I will tell you guys how this next week goes! I am doing a training to the zone tomorrow and then on Saturday, Elder Holland is coming and he is going to speak to all of the Arizona Missions! So that will be super fun!!  I am super stoked! Have a FANTASTIC week parental units and family!!! Oh and everybody else that read this!!!

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Dear Friends and Family!!!

 

Christmas was awesome being able to talk to all of you guys and to see your faces again! Isn't it weird that it has almost been 6 months since I left home for the MTC? Time has flown by. Oh and by the way, if I email home in a few weeks saying that I've gained a ton of weight--that is all thanks to you guys giving me all the candy and good food for Christmas! Luckily I have been able to make them last a week so far, so I am doing good, but I am sure that I will cave in one of these days and eat them all! :)

That is kinda cool that Emily was able to give a talk on Obedience yesterday after having that experience happen to her so recently. It really helps when you are teaching people to have an experience that can go along with and kind of help you relate to the other people that you are trying to teach. My companion and I taught the lesson in Young Women yesterday at church about standing as a witness. We used a talk from 2008 and an object lesson about being in the world but not of the world. It was really cool for me because we talked about how 2 of the biggest ways that people view us is through our language and the way that we dress. So, with the language I was able to share an experience about football and how my teammates were trying to get me to swear! I'm not sure I ever even told you guys about that and what all happened.  But, that was a really good experience for me!  It was helpful to have an experience like that to share, plus I brought suckers for all of the young women, so it made it all the better! ;)

Other than that this week has been pretty busy and we were able to teach that super awesome guy again this week and he came to church with us! That was awesome! We went over to his house last night and we have been reading from the Book of Mormon with him.  We read 1 Nephi 8 and I drew out Lehi's vision and shared with him what all of it meant and it was a super awesome lesson! Not to mention he told me to sign the picture and that he is going to hang it up on his wall! hahaha MY ART IS FAMOUS!!! :)

But, yeah it was a good week and I look forward to another awesome week in the mission field! I love you guys tons and don't worry. . . I am safe here, especially now that I got my new guard dog! Oh, and I got Avengers Socks!!!

 

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Oh and by the way, the lamp in the picture is what I used as my own personal Christmas tree this year! hahaha

 

Hello Everyone!!!

Hey, so this week was super cool! We started talking to this guy on the street who called us over nd found out he had met with missionaries 2 years earlier.  We were able to go over on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights and have lessons with him and teach him more about the church.  He told us some super cool things that happened to him since he had been talking to us. He has a very strong testimony on the power of prayer. He told us about one experience he had this week.  He had been having chest pain and hadn't been taking his medicine for it. He told us the next lesson the next day that he had taken his pills and then began to pray and he has not had any problems with it all week now! It was awesome!

We also got together as a whole mission on Sunday night and had a mission president devotional. There were 2 recent converts who spoke to us.  One of them had actually just been baptized earlier that day. The other one spoke about being called to a position in the High Priest Quorum just a few short months after his baptism.  He said it helped him become stronger and feel needed in the church! It was awesome. 

On Monday we went to the mission home early in the morning and had an all day thing at the church building right there next to it.  There were speakers and lots of musical numbers followed by Santa coming and a testimony meeting.  To end it we had a big FHE together which was super cool to be able to get to know everyone a little bit better! Oh, and Kaleb May, the Elder I met in the MTC who became such a great friend--I hadn't seen him in the full 5 months I have been out until this week so I was super happy to be reunited with my good buddy this week! It was awesome! 

Then, today we went to the Mesa Temple as a mission and did a session and then took a big picture as a mission! It is so cool there because there are orange and grapefruit trees all over the grounds and the gardeners said for us to go and pick some of them since they are ripe around Christmas here! It was awesome and I really enjoyed it!

There is also something that is super cool going on in January that we were told about yesterday as well. Elder Holland is going to be down here in AZ to meet with the college kids and then we were told that he wants to come to all of the AZ missions and speak to all of us in person! I am so excited, and everybody else is as well, because who doesn't love Elder Holland!

I live in a safe area now, and it is really nice. It is a little bit weird because in my last area, Maryvale, we always heard sirens and gunshots and then the helicopter going overhead, and now that I am in Ahwatukee there is none of that. CULTURE SHOCK!!! But, if we do hear sirens then we know that someone's cat got stuck in a tree or something! :) Ahwatukee isn't quite on the Reservation but if we go south of our apartment at all then we are on the reservation! I just found that out this week! But yeah! Super excited to give you guys a call soon! 

Love you all tons and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Elder Wallentine

Hello Everyone!!!

 

Man, this week has been a little bit crazy, and I am so glad that you sent that package to my new address instead of the old one.  I was a little worried about that! :)  Thank you so much for all of the things that you and the fam does to keep my head up high and happy! The Mission is for sure not easy from what I can already tell, but I am already growing in so many ways that it is hard to count! Although it might just be that I am getting fatter! hahaha

This past week has been super fun! We went to transfer meeting on Wednesday, and both me and the last companion I trained were called again to be trainers.  We both attended another meeting on Friday for the new missionaries! At the transfer meeting I had a really cool experience! President Toone told us (the trainers) to tell something that our trainers did with us that we liked! I stood up and said that my trainer (Elder Forson) was always happy and, no matter what, he always stayed positive rather than getting down on things. Then President Toone looked at me and said that the reason he called me to be a trainer again with a special assignment is because of my positive attitude! It was really awesome for me to hear that and helps me want to live up to the reputation others have of me.  It has really helped me to be able to stay happy and positive all of the time!

Other than that, I love my new companion and know that we will become great friends throughout the time that we serve here in Ahwatukee together! Oh,  there is a family moving from the ward that I am in right now to Idaho!!! She spoke yesterday in church so afterward I immediately went and asked where in Idaho she was going and she said Meridian! So, I said for her to look out for my family up there!! It's kind of funny hearing of people moving up there because sometimes I forget that I am not there right now! hahaha  But, I am having a super good time down here and, although some people are harder to talk to than others, the gospel will be available for everybody and I know that no matter what goes on with us in life, the gospel is always here to help us out!!! Well, I love you and can't wait for all the letters and the package!

 

Love,

Elder Wallentine

 

Oh, and by the way, I HAVE A CAR NOW!!!

Hello Everyone!!!

 

Hey, so Thanksgiving was awesome this year, although it was a little bit hard being away from all of the family and friends back home.  I thought it would be a lot harder  and that I would feel homesick, but it was really good for me.  We were able to go over to some members houses for dinner and they did a really good job at making me feel right at home. One of the people that we baptized--a mother and a daughter--had us over for dinner.  The 10 year old daughter always tells us she looks to me and my companion as if we were her older brothers! It was so cool!  We also went over to the first counselor's house for dinner, and they fed us very well, too!  We had ham, turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pie, cheesecake, and sweat potatoes! :) I did miss your famous sweet potato stuff though because that is my absolute favorite!!! But it was awesome!

The interview with the Ipads was really cool and interesting. We went in and did an assessment on how well it is working and the things that they should change to be able to make them work a little bit better in missionary work. So far I love the Ipads because it is a lot easier to be able to stay organized and then we don't have to bike all the way over to the library every day to be able to get on Facebook. Facebook is working really well for me even though some days it is a little bit slower, but I have been teaching some people online and it is really good for me to be able to have the opportunity to not only share with people that I talk to here, but also to the whole entire world!!! I am so happy about that!

Other than that it has been a pretty good week we went over to a lot of members houses and really got to know them all a little bit better! As we did that we could see miracles happening and more people began to talk to us and were interested in what we have to say. It is amazing how things happen even in the ways that you would least expect it.

So transfer calls were last night, and I am being transferred out to a new area and training a missionary who has been out for 1 transfer so far! It will be super fun and I am super excited, although I will miss all of the people that are here in the ward in Maryvale. This ward has been super good to me and I am super happy that I was able to meet so many new friends in the ward that I would have never met if I wasn't here for this time!!! That is kind of weird to think about how different it could have been if I would have been 19 out here in the field. hahaha

Well, I look forward to hearing from you guys soon and hopefully the package makes it to me okay! I told dad in his email like everything that i need for Christmas! Sweaters, Ties, my Nike socks from back home, and really anything you guys want to send me!!! Other than that, I told him that my shoes are really HOLE-EE now! :) hahaha Thank you so much for all that you guys do to help me out and I am so glad that you guys had a good Thanksgiving! I love you all tons!!!

 

Adios!!!

Love,

Elder Wallentine