Elder Holland came!

It's been a great week! Unfortunately I have a limited time to write.

The highlight of the week was the fact that Elder Holland came to
visit our mission! Elder Holland had to cancel the last time that we
thought he was going to show up. So he came back to make it up to us,
and he definitely made it up. It was incredible! My testimony was
strengthened so much of the fact that we have living Apostles on the
earth today. It was so wonderful to be able to hear such a great
message of the Holy Ghost. He testified heavily of the importance of
continual repentance and continual listening to the promptings of the
Holy Ghost.

I love being a missionary. It's such a great experience. Today I have
3 months left to have this opportunity. It's not real, but I know that
I need to make the most of this time. I'm so excited to be working
here in this ward and with these individuals.

This week we had a cool story. I was with a priest a couple weeks ago
contacting people around an apartment complex. We met a lady who
seemed interested. She introduced us to her aunt who lived there. The
aunt was a little eccentric but a great person. She didn't talk with
us long, but she asked about church. We didn't think to much about it
because we invite tons of people to church. She showed up though! She
came and she loved it! I had such a fun experience showing her around
and teaching her the gospel as we went through the church 3 hour
block. She's agreed to start meeting with us, and she wants to come to
church every week!

I love you all! Have a great week!!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Here's our district

Life is hot and good.

So let's start this off with the story of Aeriel. Just in case some of
you haven't been keeping up. Plus it'll help everyone see the story as
a whole. So there was a lady that for 3 months I had tried and tried
to teach her the gospel. She just wasn't interested. The reason that I
tried so hard was because I received a prompting that came with an
affirmation. The Spirit told me that she needed the gospel. The Spirit
also told me that I was going to be the one who taught her the gospel.
With this knowledge from the Holy Ghost, I was gung-ho about trying to
teach her. Well these 3 months went by and she showed no signs of
interest. I got transferred and I was really bummed and confused. Well
with the transfer, I ended up keeping my last area and just adding a
new one on to it. A few weeks later, we get a call that this lady has
been coming to church every Sunday since I left. She wants to hear
what we have to say! We set up a lesson with a member and go on out
there. From that point on we met with her weekly and taught her all
the lessons. She received opposition and negative influences. She just
about gave up. But she hung tight to the spiritual impressions that
she had received of the truthfulness of the gospel. She quit smoking
in one week. And this past weekend, I got to baptize her. It was an
incredibly spiritual moment for me. It boosted and reassured my faith
in promptings. God has a plan and He will make his plan and promises
be fulfilled. I know that Aeriel was someone in the Pre-Mortal Life
that I promised I would teach her the gospel. It was amazing. I can't
explain the feelings in words.

It's been hot in Glendale. We hit 120 on Sunday. It was lots of fun to
be on bike! We were told multiple times that we were stupid and that
we needed to go somewhere inside. We pressed on! The Lord has a work
to be done here in the La Pradera Park Ward and no matter of heat can
stop it.

This P-Day we went bowling. I ended up winning with a score of 144!
I'm pretty sure that's the best I've ever bowled, so that was pretty
sweet! Our zone has a bowling trophy that goes to the winner of that
round of bowling. So I now am in possession of the Glendale Bowling
Trophy.

Cool investigator story of the week. We had a family of investigators
come to church yesterday! Now they are on date to be baptized in July!
They have lots of little kids, but 3 members of the family are of
baptism age! That was super exciting!

I love you all and I hope all is just dandy!

-Elder Toph Tribe
Areiel's baptism 

The trophy 

This is a melted Book of Mormon. It got a little hot in my bag while riding my bike b

Crazy day, Crazy week.....

First, I'll  start on a spiritual note. This week I got to go to the

temple. It was an amazing opportunity. It was a chance to be able to
sit back, and enjoy the peace God intends for His children. It was a
lovely reminder that this is where I want everyone to be able to be.
This is my goal for everyone I meet on the street. I want to see them
in the temple being able to partake in the Spirit that resides only in
that sacred building.

We were able to find a new investigator this week who was incredibly
prepared for us. I was out with a priest who has been preparing for a
mission. I asked him to pick a random door for us to knock. We go, and
he knocks. A lady answers and starts crying. She told us that her
children have been asking questions about God and Jesus Christ that
she can't answer because of her lack of knowledge. She asked us to
come and teach her whole family what They are all about. Miracles do
happen! The Spirit led  us to that door and we had a wonderful
experience because of it. God truly directs this work.

It's been over 2 year since I've touched a tennis racket... Until
today! A member of our ward is a retired tennis pro. At dinner, we
discussed a lot about tennis. It turns out that Elder Katz is also a
tennis player. She let us borrow a couple rackets, and we played for
about a hour today! It was a ton of fun! I wasn't even kind of up to
par with where I once was, but it was still fun to hit around in this
100 degree heat.

We have quite a decent teaching pool currently and it keeps growing.
Started with 2 and now we are at 14. We have been able to find more
than that, but they weren't quite ready for the word just yet. That 14
are just the ones that we are regularly teaching multiple times a
week. We are hopefully getting 2 more tonight. We have the lessons set
up, so we pray that they will be ready.

Aerial, from Kirkland, has called and asked me to attend her baptism!
Not only that, but she has asked if I would be willing to baptize her!
I am so excited!! We will be traveling up there this Saturday for that
ordinance. She has come so far, and I'm so excited to be able to see
her take this leap of faith into the waters of baptism.

When I served in the Deer Valley Ward (over a year ago), a family
moved in that had recently gotten baptized and were pretty less
active. The young man was unsure of his testimony and his decision
that he made when he was baptized. He had dropped out of school and
wasn't making great choices. I worked with them for 3 months before
they moved. During that 3 months I got this young man to come out with
us to a couple lessons and start to come to church. Well it turns out
that he moved to Glendale in the La Pradera Park Ward. He's now a high
school graduate, and this Wednesday he will be entering in to the MTC
to be serving in the Salt Lake City West Mission! I was the first
missionary that he ever taught a lesson with and I was the last one
that he taught a lesson with (before his mission). He told me that he
was so grateful that I didn't give up on him in those first 3 months.
He's an incredible young man and it touch my heart to see him change
so much. I'm so excited for him! If any of you live in that area, be
on the look out for Elder Maltos! He's going to be the missionary that
takes the mission by storm.

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Week 2 in Glendale

Week 2 here in G-Town has been great! Biking our lives away. It's
getting pretty hot. I'm loving life though. I have to get back in
shape some how from being in a car for so long. My mission president
has given me this wonderful opportunity to do so!

This week we did get a sweet new ride though. We got a car this week
for zone leader stuff. So when we need to go to meetings, pick up
other missionaries, or get supply orders, we have a vehicle to do it
in. We got a sweet mom van! I'm driving a Dodge Grand Caravan! It's
pretty fantastic.

This week Elder Katz and I got pretty determined to find a new
investigator. So on Friday we fasted. We started fasting Thursday
night after our planning. We prayed and said that we would fast until
we found a new investigator. We proselyted hard all day. Went to some
meetings and we're still fasting. Just before our dinner time, we
found a new person to teach! It was great! The power of fasting and
prayer have blessed us so much. We ended our week by finding 4 new
investigators!

The members we live with had a birthday party for their now 2 year old
granddaughter. When we came home, we got to play with all the party
stuff that was still up. We jumped in the bouncy house, hung out with
life size Frozen cut outs, and ate cupcakes. It was pretty fun. We
still have the Olaf cut out.

As I read from the New Testament this week, this scripture really
stood out to me:
1 Timothy 4:12 "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example
of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in
faith, in purity."
This is what I'm striving for in my life. I want others to look at me
and know what I stand for by my words, conversation, charity, spirit,
faith, and purity. It is a privilege to know so much about Jesus
Christ. So many don't know Him as I do. I want to do everything I can
to help others learn of Him. One of the greatest way to do this is
being that example and exemplifying these characteristics, because
these are His characteristics.

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

P-Day chillin with Olaf

We are trying to get in to more member homes, so we posted this on the
Ward Facebook page. I'm rocking some beautiful helmet hair.