Merry Christmas.... A few days ago

It was cool to see how many relationships we've built out here in this
area this Christmas season. Our Branch President invited us over for
Christmas Eve. His mother in law, who lives with them, asked what
Christmas traditions we have in our families. Both Elder Wilcox and I
had the tradition of opening up pajamas on Christmas Eve. Well shortly
after dinner we gathered with there family and the kids opened up
pajamas. Then our Branch Presidents wife handed us each a gift and it
was pajamas! They helped each of us keep that Christmas tradition
alive for ourselves even though we are away from home. It was so nice.
There is a family out in Bagdad who I had a conversation with about
Nutella. I'm a big fan of Nutella and so are they. Well they surprised
me with a Christmas present of a big jar of Nutella and a case of
Nutella to go snack packs! They're the coolest! There is a family who
hasn't been to church in a long time. Elder Wilcox and I have been
working with them trying to get them to come back out. Well the dad is
the coach for the little league football team. Their team went
undefeated and won the championship. I've talked a lot of football
with him. He got me a Bagdad football championship hoodie with my name
on the back and my high school football number on the sleeve! He also
got one for Elder Wilcox! It's been a pleasure serving out here at
this time of year. The people are so kind and so loving.

I got to see and talk to my family this week!!! There wasn't the
greatest wifi connection, because I'm in the middle of no where, but
it was still wonderful to see them and hear their voices!

This week I had a really cool experience happen. We went over to do
serve for a guy who got baptized about a year ago. We were helping him
put new doors on his off-roading Blazer. His daughter came out and
informed us that her mom was slurring her words and wasn't looking
good at all. We all ran inside. She was having a mini stroke. The guy
looked at us will a look I can't forget. His face was scared, but
confident in a solution he had come to. He asked us to give her a
blessing. I had the privilege of giving her that blessing. After the
blessing she stood up, spoke clearly, and walked out to the truck to
go to the hospital. It was incredible. It was one of the most powerful
experience I've had with the Priesthood. I'm so blessed to be able to
hold this authority to act in God's name here on Earth for the
blessing of his children.

Have a happy new year! I love you all!

-Elder Toph Tribe

This week was interesting...

This week was an interesting one.

Our potential investigator fell through... That was a bummer, but
hopefully we'll be able to meet up with them again at a future time!

We went to the Mesa Temple lights this week! That was a fun
experience. My companion's response to all of it was, "Yeah, this is
nothing compared to Salt Lake." Our Mission President responded with,
"Well of course not. There is a Prophet of God, his first presidency,
and 12 Apostles in Salt Lake. They're going to save the best for
them." Makes sense to me! It was really pretty though and we did have
a good time there.

This week we went out knocking doors in Yarnell. Which is a small town
that we cover. We knocked a door and a lady came out looking really
excited to see us. We got to know her, and it turns out that when she
was in Mexico for a few years she had lots of contact with
missionaries. She was never baptized, but loves the Elders. Her
husband is, as he puts it, a retired biker. He has a sweet mustache
and some sweet long hair. They're both in their 70s. We got to talking
and it turns out they needed firewood. We devised a plan to get them
some firewood without them knowing. We went down to a ranch owned by a
member, chop up a truck load of wood they said we could have, and
deliver it to them. We were trying to be sneaky and unload it without
them knowing, but we got caught. She had tears running down her face
and she was so incredibly grateful. She told us that she was praying
for some way for them to be able to stay warm because they ran out of
wood that morning. I'm so thankful that we had the opportunity to help
them out. It was such an amazing spiritual experience that we realized
that we were being directed by Heavenly Father to bless the lives of 2
of his children.

This week we also had the opportunity to go help with some ranch work.
There is a couple who hasn't been to church in many years who own a
ranch. We went up and asked if we could serve them, and they put us
right to work. I got to feed and brush horses, feed young cows and
bulls, and play with some dogs. It was so much fun! At the end of it
we got talking about church and what was going on at the branch. We
talked them into committing to come to church next week!

Elder Wilcox and I have decided that if we are going to get anything
moving in this area, it is going to be through service. We are taking
the example of Ammon in the Book of Mormon. He served King Lamoni
diligently and it softened the heart of the King. Ammon was then able
to teach him and thus being able to convert his whole kingdom! This
lead to the softening of the heart of the King of the whole land who
was even King over Lamoni. Then Aaron was able to go and convert him
to the righteous ways of the Lord. This in turn caused a good portion
of the Lamanites to become converted as well. It all started with
service. Service for one man caused thousands to come to the truth and
light of the gospel. So that's our approach. We're going to serve and
loves these people

I love you all! I hope you have a delightful Christmas!

-Elder Toph Tribe

This is literally all of Bagdad. 

It snowed!!!

It snowed!!! Up here in the northern regions of Arizona I guess it
actually snows! It might only be a couple of inches, it might melt
away shortly after the sun comes up, but I actually got to see and
play in snow! I was so excited!

This week was a good one. We had the opportunity to meet lots of
people! We were asked by some of the members to go hand out
invitations to he Ward Christmas Party. It was a great way to be able
to get out and meet a bunch of people! Especially the people that no
one has seen in a long time. The Ward Christmas Party went great! We
had a really fun time and lots of people came. They had it Polar
Express themed. They took a long horse trailer and crafted it up to
kind of look like the Polar Express! The kids loved it!

One amazing thing that came from us going to people and inviting them
to the Ward Christmas Party was we got a new potential investigator
out of it! We knocked on this door and a lady who was very nice talked
to us for a little while. She is a member. Her son came up behind her.
She looked at her son and asked if he wanted to go to church. He said
that he did. She said,"Great! He's ten. How do we go about getting the
lessons so he can be baptized?" Such a tender mercy from the Lord!!
We're going over to this Tuesday to teach him!

There are lots of opportunities for us to do service up here. We raked
leaves, set up Christmas lights, chopped fire wood, and all sorts of
fun stuff like that. It's a wonderful way for us to start off
conversations. People are always very appreciative of the help.

One thing that I've learned on my mission is that no matter how good
you are at something, you're nothing without the Lord. He has given us
our talents. He has done so much for each and every one of us.
Humility is a wonderful thing. It helps us so much. It allows us to be
teachable and then we have the opportunity to learn so much more than
we already know. Humility is a blessing, because it helps you realize
all of your other blessings!

I love you all! Have a terrific week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Crazy Week....

Crazy week. So I ended up getting transferred as a last minute
decision by President Griffin. I'm now up in the northern land! I'm in
the Prescott stake. I'm in the Kirkland Branch and the Bagdad Ward.
I'm with a missionary who just got done being trained. Elder Richards
stayed down in Peoria and is training. Which is awesome! I'm so happy
for him! It was weird. I was excited to know I was training, but it
didn't feel real. I never thought I was really staying. The Spirit was
preparing me for the surprise! It's a little chilly up here but I have
sweaters that are keeping me plenty warm. My companion is from
Sugarhouse, Utah. His name is Elder Wilcox. He has Cerebral Palsy.
He's a great guy and really excited to be a missionary. This area is a
hour from the next closest set of missionaries and is about 2 hours
from one end to the other. A lot of dirt roads. We have a sweet truck.
It's going to be fun!

Bagdad is a mining town. It's a town that is literally owned by the
mine. We can't openly proselyte. If we knock doors and the individuals
don't like us, we can get arrested. So we have to work a lot with
members! It's going to be a great opportunity to work more with the
ward and get them excited about missionary work!

The transition has been a little rough just because of the surprise of
the situation. It's going to be great though and I'm excited!

I love you all! Have a dandy week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Pictures! Me on a duck rock in the middle of no where. And a selfie in
the middle of no where yet again haha. Our area has a lot of no where
in it.

Transfer week...

Elder Richards is getting transferred. It'll be sad to see him go.
I've absolutely loved being his companion! He's the man.
I'm getting a new trainee though! A brand new missionary. I'm so
excited to have this opportunity to train again!
I'm also the first zone leader to ever train. So this will be an exciting adventure!

Thanksgiving was great! We had the opportunity to spend time with a
lot of members. It was a really fun day!
We got permission to go and participate in the Turkey Bowl. It was such a
good time! We have a really athletic group of young men, which made it
really fun!

This week was great! We really had an amazing last week as a
companionship. We were able to find a new investigator family and a
new investigator individual! Our members are phasing over to become
phase 3 wards. We're literally having people come up to us at church
and invite us over to teach their friends!!! I'm so excited!! We'll
have a few more new investigators this week because of how great our
members are! I'm so excited to be here right now!

The power of positivity is incredible! That is the only reason that
this area is doing so well. It's the reason I'm being trusted with the
responsibility to train a new missionary. I'm just so happy and
joyful! It's the best!

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

We took family photos today. Elder Richards is next to me, Elder
Watson has the bear, and Elder Bradshaw has the flag. I'll send those
in a minute

Dog whisperer

Well hello again family and friends!

I had the opportunity to go to a baptism in Camp Verde. This is in the
northern part of the mission. Unfortunately it wasn't snowy... But the
baptism was amazing. It was for 2 teenagers that Elder Richards taught
up there. They were so humble and ready for the gospel. It was
incredible to see the amount of support they had by their ward. The
Spirit was very strong throughout the whole process. I loved every
minute of it. Definitely worth the 4 hours in the car to get there and
back.

This week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Agua Fria
Elders. This is the Spanish ward. I got to spend the day with Elder
Tamayo. We had such a fun day! I used the very limited Spanish
knowledge I have to my fullest ability. I had a couple people actually
convinced that I know Spanish!

So I have been named the dog whisperer in our zone. Multiple times
this week I have encountered dogs and subdued them. There was a
pitbull barking like crazy in front of a house we were going to visit.
My companion at that time suggested we move on to the next house. I
told him we should just go any way. We went and I had the dog calmed
in minutes. The owner came out in utter shock that the dog stopped
barking and was letting me pet him. Another time this week we had a
member who has a very easily frightened dog. This dog hates strangers
and is even afraid of the owners from time to time. The first time we
were in their home, I had this dog sitting on my feet and being
completely calm. The owners were in awe. I just love dogs  and they
know it I suppose. Its a good time!

This week we got black boxes. These are little boxes that go in our
cars that tell us how we're driving. At the end of each week we get
graded based upon our speed, acceleration, braking, and turning. If
you make a mistake in any of these categories it has a voice that
informs you of such. Its pretty funny to hear how much other
missionaries complain about it. Hopefully it improves our driving as a
mission and there will be less accidents.

We got a new investigator this week. We went and knocked on the door of a women
who hasn't wanted contact with the church for the past 5 years. She
answered the door initially irritated, but we got her to change her
mood quick. We ended up having a 20 minute conversation with her and
got her laughing a lot. It turns out that she has a 17 year old
daughter who hasn't been baptized. We talked her mom in to letting her
daughter take the lessons. Her daughter is so ready for the gospel.
One lesson in and she wants to be baptized! Sadly her mom currently
doesn't want her to get baptized right now. We're going to continue to
work with both of them. When we tell people who it is in the ward all
are in awe and are very excited. So many people want to help. It's
incredible!!

I love you all and hope you have a delightful week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

What a great week to be a missionary!

What a great week to be a missionary!

Elder Richards and I are pretty much best friends. I love him so much! He's the man! We have such a great time together!!

This week we had lots of meetings. We met with mission, stake, and ward leaders. They went great! We're instituting simple ward mission plans. They've worked wonderfully in other places so we're trying them out here. We're pretty excited!

At church this past Sunday I had the opportunity to teach a Sunday School class. It was for a group of teenagers 16-18. I got asked to teach this class moments before the class started. I hadn't prepared anything but I wanted to make some type of impact on this group. I felt that these teens needed to her my personally conversion story. The story of how I came to know that the church was true. When I told all of them that when I was 18 I didn't even want to serve a mission, it caught them off guard. Which was exactly what I wanted to happen, because then they listened. What occurred next can't really be described with words. The Spirit was definitely there and helped everyone in that room. It was incredible. I opened up for questions and let them ask anything. It was amazing to see the youth answer each other's questions and helping each other with the aid of the Spirit. I'm so grateful that I had that opportunity.

I hope all is great for you all! I love you!

-Elder Toph Tribe

This week was delightful!

We found a new person to teach! We had a member family come up to us

and inform us that their friend is ready to take the missionary
lessons. We were so excited! She is so ready for the gospel. Members
really are the best missionaries. We taught the lesson, but they
definitely prepared her through their good example and constant
friendship.

Fun story! I figured out how to solve a Rubik's Cube this week. It was
a pretty epic experience.

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges this week with Elder Cook. We
had such a great day! We were able to street contact this man and
completely change his point of view on Mormons. He thought we were all
stuck up and not very nice. We proved that we are actually nice and
accepting of others. Those Elders are going to start teaching him this
upcoming week!

We had a zone meeting this week. It went super well. We were able to
bond a lot as a zone. I love our zone so much!

This week after my mission president read my email about wanting to
focus on the Book of Mormon more, he is having our whole mission start
the Book of Mormon and finish it by the end of the year. I'm hyped!
It's going to be a great way to raise spirituality in our mission.

Our house is focusing on obedience this week. We're dissecting every
thing that we can to be exactly obedient to all of God's commandments
and the mission rules. It's so incredible the blessings that come when
you try your very best to follow everything that you can.

I love you all and hope all is well!

-Elder Toph Tribe

What a wonderful week to be a missionary!

What a wonderful week to be a missionary!

This week we set ourselves up for some great success in the coming
weeks. We contacted 6 new people who we set up lessons with! We also
were able to sit down with a mom of a missionary. She isn't a member
and has very little knowledge about our religion. We shared with her
the first missionary lesson. She loved it! We're so excited to
continue to teach her and all of these new people!!

We had 2 truck-or-treats this week. Members bought us giant candies!
We were the hit of the party. There were a lot of non members so those
were great nights!

We had a district activity this week. We all carved pumpkins! It was
super fun! The sisters carved a cantaloupe just for fun.

Halloween night we got together as a zone. We had a really fun time
playing games and sports as a zone!

This week I was fasting trying to figure out how I can help boost the
work in this area. I had a wonderful spiritual revelation that I need
to focus more on the Book of Mormon. I'm really excited to see what
will come from my more focused study on this book that has changed my
life so much for the better!

I love you all and hope all is great! :)

-Elder Toph Tribe

Patience

I'm in Peoria North! I moved north a stake. I'm serving in the Liberty
and Rose Garden Wards. I'm finally living with other missionaries
again! We live in a home that was donated by members. It's pretty
classy!

My companion is Elder Richards. He's the man. I love being with him!
We're going to have a great time as a companionship.

I'm excited to get to know this new ward and work with the members.
It's going to be a delightful time!

We have a sweet Corolla. I'm the designated driver! It's a good time.

I was asked to give a discussion this week. I prepared a discussion on
patience. I realized how important it truly is to have patience. I was
able to study the scriptures and see how patient Christ truly was.
It's incredible how much patience he truly had. It inspired me to
continue to work on my patience and love those around me.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!!

-Elder Toph Tribe

2 week post...

Sorry I didn't write last week! We didn't have wifi past 3 on P-Day so I didn't have the opportunity to send it off. So you'll be reading a two week update.

These past two weeks have been interesting.

Nothing that we planned actually happened besides our dinner appointments. We still accomplished quite a bit though. We may not have done what we intended to, but the Lord got what he needed done. That's all that matters.

We had a zone meeting  2 weeks ago and then zone conference this week. Both meetings were great. Lots of insights to be gained. Both had a lot of discussion on unity and developing a culture. Primarily a culture of service.

We've been able to give lots of service these past couple of weeks. We go to a thrift shop twice a week that donates money to a battered women's shelter. We have fun sorting goods, bringing in donations, and interacting with customers. We also had the opportunity to help at a fundraising brunch for a group that helps individuals with mental disabilities lead normal lives. Service always makes me feel better, because I know that I was able to make someone elses burden lighter. It's a great feeling.

I got a flu shot this week. The mission office set up a system so that all missionaries have the opportunity to receive a flu shot at zone conference. For all of you who have gotten a flu shot, you know that you can't really feel it. Well I found out that there are missionaries that are terrified to even get a flu shot. This semi shocked me. I guess some people never grown out of that fear.

Biking. I went on an exchange this week with a missionary who's in a bike area. So I was back on bike for the day. I really enjoyed being able to bike around for the day. We were able to talk to so many more people. That social interaction is so nice. People are a lot nicer on the sidewalk than at their doorway.

Exercise. I talked Elder Bunn into working out with me. Usually we run together, do some stretching and such, then he would shower while I played around with the weight set we have. Now we're working out and getting fit. It's so nice to be able to have a work out bud. He's new to this lifting thing, but he'll be a regular in no time. It's really fun!

This week I am being transferred. It's been a good time here in the Sun Valley and Rio Vista YSA wards. I'm excited for my next adventure though! I'll let you all know where I end up next week, because I won't find out until tomorrow.

I love you all and hope life is dandy!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Picture explanation.

1 Elder Bunn and I at MLC

2 Me at MLC

3 My zone

4 Showing off all my watches. Including a new addition, the watch ring.

General Conference was phenomenal...

Hellooooooooo!
(If you catch the reference above, I applaud you.)

This week was a great week! General Conference was phenomenal. I
throughly enjoyed every minute. I have pages of notes that I'm so
excited to go over with the talks again when the text is released. If
you didn't have an opportunity to watch all sessions of General
Conference, I would exhort you to go back and watch or read them.
As I was comparing notes with a few other missionaries, it's incredible
how we all could pull such different perspectives from the same talks.
That's the beauty of General Conference though. No matter where we are
as individuals, we can get something from the talks that is specific
just to us. It's truly a testimony builder to me that God inspires
those men and women to give us the messages they've prepared.

This week I had the opportunity to spend the day with one of the
missionaries in my zone. He is from Mexico and doesn't speak the best
English. I love him so much though. His testimony of the Book of
Mormon is so inspirational and motivating that once you hear it, you
feel as if you need to read it cover to cover at that moment. It's not
what he says that makes you feel that way though. He has a hard time
wrapping his mouth around the English words he's looking for. The
simplistic message he can utter brings the Spirit of God so strongly
to the room that no one can deny it. He's a wonderful missionary and
one of he most Christlike people I know.

People who just hear the gospel love to share it. We have a couple of
investigators who go and tell their friends about what they just
learned. We'll get texts from them asking for the scripture references
we used so that they're friends can read them too. These non members
are doing more missionary work than most members of the church!
They're on fire. I love being a missionary!!

I hope all of you have a terrific week! I love you all!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Pictures: Here are some pictures we took as a district this week.

The Lord brings miracles!

The Lord brings miracles into the lives of his diligent servants.

This week was slow. Like everything we had set up cancelled. Even a lot of dinners cancelled. It was rough. It seemed like no one was ever home on any door we knocked on. Our investigators were sick or out of town. It was definitely a test of my diligence, perseverance, and sanity.

We got a notification that someone had just moved into our ward boundaries. We went and visited them just to see what would happen. A single mom answered the door. She had been taking the lessons in Avondale with her 8 year old daughter for the past couple of months. She told us that they were ready to be baptized. They're on date to be baptized on the 24th of October!

This morning we were going to visit Keith, our investigator. He invited his friend Shelby to sit in on the lesson. She lives a couple blocks away and is totally interested in the gospel and wants to be baptized too!

Prayers are answered. We just need to do the best we possibly can and the Lord will make up the rest.

I found out that the members we live with have a tiny bench rack. So I started lifting again this week! It felt so nice to be able to actually have some weights to throw around. It's only bench pressing, but it's better than what I've had for the past 5 months.

Saturday we went as a zone of missionaries and cleaned Lake Pleasant. It was a project on JustServe.org . We went and picked up trash on the beach for a few hours. It was really fun to get together with our zone and be able to help the community.

I love you all!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Photos: The first is us with some other missionaries just a minute ago. We picked them up to go P-Day. The second is the north district of our zone. We went to their district meeting this week to help with some training stuff and we took a picture after.

Sorry this is going to be short....

Sorry this is going to be short. Today got really busy really quick.
It was fun though! Today we celebrated my year mark. We did so by
burning a pair of my pants. They were a pair that got really beat up.
They were worn so bad that you could see through them at some points.
So they were burned to help me celebrate one year of being a
missionary!

I just love being a missionary. Easily the greatest decision I've ever
made in my life. It's hard, mentally taxing, and emotionally
exhausting. It's worth ever second though. I'm able to see the
greatest miracles first hand. That being the effect of the Atonement of
Jesus Christ taking full effect in the life of an individual. I've
been able to see that in coverts, members, missionaries, and myself.
I am so humbled and grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord.
I'm just so happy. I look forward to another year of joy and
obstacles. It's going to be amazing.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

So here are some pictures from the week.

The first 2 are from mission tour. 5 zones got together and we heard
from Elder Frost and Elder Montoya. Both of from the 70. The first is
Elder Bunn, Elder Clark, Me, Elder Timm, and Elder Peterson. The
second is Elder Bradshaw, Elder Bunn, Elder Earl, Elder Ogden, Me, and
Elder Richards. From left to right on both photos. All missionaries I
love. The 3rd picture is Elder Bunn and me in our Waldo's tacos shirts
that we got this week. The Waldo's are a family in the Spanish branch
in our zone that we met because they own Waldo's tacos. They offer
missionaries free food and told us we had to come. We went and we
really hit it off with the family. They liked us so much  that they
gave us shirts. So that was pretty sweet
-Elder Toph Tribe

Ciera got baptized!

Ciera got baptized!!!
This was the best baptism I've ever been to. It was incredible. Ciera
was so incredibly ready to be baptized. She invited all of her cheer
squad and a ton of her friends to the baptism. There were more non
members than members at the baptism! She's already an amazing
missionary! She asked me to baptize her and it was a super spiritual
experience for both of us.

We had the opportunity to help a lady who suffers with mental health
issues this week. We went to 2 different mental health hospitals. Both
places we had people come to us and ask for blessings. We talked to
one gentleman who informed us he had been investigating the church for
a couple months but didn't know if it was for him. Elder Bunn talked
with him while I talked with our member. We gave them both blessings
and the man decided he wants to get baptized! So that was super cool.
Mental health issues are very interesting and delicate. It
strengthened my testimony of love. There was literally nothing we
could do besides love those people. It worked wonders though. Love is
key to everything.

This weekend we helped move some Elders from one apartment to another.
Then we completely emptied the one they moved from. In order to do so
we needed something a little bigger than our Nissan Frontier. We were
able to use a Chevy Silverado. We needed it only for one day, but
Elder Petty, a senior missionary who works in the office, let us take
it for the whole weekend! He then said he wanted me driving it. So I
got to drive a Silverado all weekend! It was pretty sweet.

We also got to go to the temple this week. It was wonderful as always.
It was a much needed boost as well. We went on Wednesday with Elder
Weston. The peace it brought was perfect for the timing. Elder Weston
was stressed about getting transferred and it brought him to ease. The
temple is the house of God and the place that we can feel closest to
Him here on earth. Go as much as you possibly can!

Life is just dandy down here in Peoria!

I love you all and hope all is swell!

-Elder Toph Tribe