Lesson Learned

Time is such a weird concept. Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days.
But today is Monday! Which means it's P-Day!

I don't have any great stories for you this week. This week was kind
of a long one honestly. We were going through our investigators and
prayed about them. Most of them haven't met with us in a couple of
weeks. We went around and asked them all if they wanted to continue
meeting with us. Sadly 13 said no. We're left with 5 people and 1 we
can't get a hold of. So right now is a time for focusing and
restarting. We're going to be more efficient with how we plan for our
5, and we're going to hit the streets hard trying to find new people
to teach!

I had a realization this week. Every single person has something hard
they're dealing with every day. Something is always going to be wrong.
No one has everything perfect and is free of struggles. I've always
kind of known this, but it really solidified with me this week. I was
thinking about everything going on with every person I'm meeting with.
I was thinking about all the missionaries I'm in contact with. I was
thinking about my family. I was thinking about myself. Everyone could
point out something that is causing some sort of stress or discomfort.
I was thinking how I get over these types of situations in my own
life. I'm really good at suppressing emotions and feelings. I've done
it for a long time. The only negative side effect to that is
eventually there is too much built up that I can no longer suppress
it. I have found the fix to this situation though! Service. Service is
the only way that I have found that I can stay sane. When I'm helping
others, I'm able to forget about whatever is plaguing my mind. So if
the world also understood this, and we all served each other to get
over our own sad situations, then our world would be such a happier
place! Everyone would be constantly helping one another!Alright, that
was my random thought for the week.

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

-Elder Toph Tribe

Lovin' this missionary life!

Lovin' this missionary life!

We started calling Phoenix P-Town this week. This came about because one of the missionaries we live with is from Georgia, and he references Atlanta as A-Town all the time. Plus I'm from O-Town. So now Phoenix is P-Town. We think this is hilarious because we're missionaries and things like that are really funny.

We were walking around and we were passing by a gas station. A man hollered at us and told us to come to him. So we did. He took us into the gas station and bought us drinks and a bottle of water! It was super nice because it was a hot day and we had been walking for a long time!

We went over to a ladies house that we had contacted a couple of weeks ago. We felt inspired to go with shovels and a wheelbarrow. We weren't sure why, but we followed the prompting. We walked over there and found her on the ground pumping up a wheelbarrow tire. It was flat and she had a lot of rocks to move. We helped her move and spread the rock. She's now interested in meeting with us!

We also got to do another service project this week! A ton of guys from the ward showed up to help so we didn't end up doing much. Our bishop chainsawed down a tree. Then they took the other chainsaws and chopped it into chunks. We carried those to a truck and that was that. It was a good time and fun to talk with all the guys in our ward down here.

We went over to a member's house this week and they gave us knives! Brand new pocket knives! They're super sweet! I'll send you a picture of me and my companion with them! They said they got us them because we're working so hard and they think we're good missionaries. So that was super nice of them and brightened my week!

One of our investigators geeked out with us this week. He's a software engineer/programmer. He makes apps and different things for windows devices. There is a thing called hallow lens coming out. Windows already has the prototypes. It pretty much makes your whole house virtually interactive. It's sweet! Our investigator is going to a conference in Washington next week to be one of the first people to be able to play with it! He said he might even get one to take home to start making software for it. Which means I'll be able to be one of the first people to see it as well! He also told us all about StarWars 7 and the new StarWars Battlefront. We nerded over that for a while too. It was great! On a spiritual note...he's reading the Book of Mormon every day! So that's fantastic!!!!

Well that was my week! I love you all!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Patience was learned.

This was a week to test my perseverance. Every lesson we had canceled.
We had 0 dinners. It was a week for the virtue of patients to be used
heavily.

So not much happened.

One thing that did happen that was really cool was I had the
opportunity to use my priesthood twice. I was asked to give 2
priesthood blessings. They were both incredible experiences.  It
strengthened my testimony in the priesthood and God's trust in me. He
definitely led me to where my companion and I needed to be. I was
able to clearly feel the promptings of the Spirit guiding me to where
I needed to be. I love the fact that I have this opportunity to build
my spirituality and learn how to more clearly listen to the promptings
of the Holy Ghost.

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

-Elder Toph Tribe 

This was a grand week!

This was a grand week!
We got to go to the Mesa Temple, Jesus The Christ, Easter Pageant! It
was great! We got to go with one of our investigators and his member
wife. It was a really fun night and they bought us shakes after! :)

I found a dead bunny on the side of the road! It was a sad day. So I
picked it up and took a picture with it! Happy Easter I suppose 😏

We hit the standards of excellence again this week! I love being able
to be apart of this work at this booming time in our area!

I bought a sweet tiger shirt at Walmart today, so the tiger pride
still holds strong!

General Conference was amazing! I strongly encourage all who weren't
able to view it to do so. Even if you did view it, go back and study
from those talks over this next 6 months, until we have another
conference. There was even a shout out to the Phoenix Temple cultural
celebration, which I was in! So that was cool!

I love you all and hope you have a great week! :)

-Elder Toph Tribe

I think he's seen Spencer more on his mission than he did at home.

Mesa Temple Easter Pageant.

Dead Bunny.

Aren't we cute.