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