Straight neck

During the Dewey ward sacrament meeting, we had quite the fun experience. The Prescott Valley Stake President got up to end our sacrament meeting. Right as he began speaking, the power went out! He ended up shouting from the pulpit to end the sacrament meeting in the dark. The rest of church got cancelled, due to the fact that half the classrooms didn't have light, and the bathrooms were pitch black.

This week I spent a day in Glendale. I went on exchanges with the Assistants to the Mission President. It was a fun day. I spent the day with Elder Byington. We went around Glendale street contacting and knocking doors like crazy. It was a lot of fun. People are a lot more open to that type of contact there than they are up here. It's always nice to see a happy person on the other side of a random door.

This week I chopped all my hair off. The sides are way short and so is the top. I took off 21/2 inches of hair from the top of my head, and an inch from the sides. I got a nice summer cut I suppose. I wasn't intending on that happening, but the lady cutting my hair decided for me haha. I was shocked at first, but now I really like it!

Well it turns out that there is an explanation to all my neck pain and headaches! I got an X-ray of my neck, and it's perfectly straight. This is apparently a bad thing. A normal, heathy neck has a curve. This allows it to act as a spring to rest your head on. It allows everything to flow naturally and take impact easier. With a natural curve, your neck is only carrying 10 pounds. My neck with the straightness of it, it is carrying 40 pounds. So this explains a lot. I now get to undergo a fun process of putting a curve back in my neck. It's painful and uncomfortable, but it'll be worth it in the end.

We had a lesson with our investigator couple who are in their 80s this week. We finally got to the bottom of the reason of why they don't want to be baptized. He feels that he won't be able to help like would be expected of him. We insured him that nothing would be expected of him that he couldn't do. She is just waiting for him. Hopefully they'll be able to accept a baptismal date and make that promise with God and receive all the blessings that He has in store for them.

As a mission we have the opportunity to have Elder Holland come speak to us this week. As I have been preparing for this, I have been able to go over his talk from this last General Conference. This quote was one that I loved, "His divine love and unfailing help will be with us even when we struggle--no, will be with us especially when we struggle." I know this is so true. Heavenly Father's love will always be there for us. No matter what we do. He loves us. I love this fact. It helps me move forward and be better every day.

I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

It's great to be busy!

This week has been quite an long week. It's been a week full of
missionary work. We had a baptism in our ward for a deaf individual
this week. It was so great to see. It was fun to work along side the
ASL elders.

Today was Elder Bradshaw's birthday. We threw him a party! We played
volley ball and had a member bring lots of treats. It was super fun!

I'm so busy right now. It's fantastic! I love it. We are teaching a
lot of people regularly, which is so nice. I'm so glad to be in this
area at this time. I'm so glad that I have such a great companion that
I get along with so well. It really is a huge blessing.

This week I had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting. I was given the assignment to speak on Elder Arnold's talk, "To
The Rescue: We Can Do It!" It was a pleasure to speak on this subject,
because it relates directly to missionary work. As with all talks I
give, I told stories of my mother and how great she is. I talked of
how she rescued me and was such a wonderful influence in my life for
good. I had dozens of members come up and thank me for my talk. Then
they asked for me to personally thank my mom. So Mom, you're the best!
Everyone in Prescott Valley now knows it!

I have been blessed so greatly. I'm so glad I have is time in my life
to reflect on everything good that I have. It's so clear that God
loves me. As each of us take time to reflect on our lives, we can
always find something good if we choose to. God wants us to be happy
and will help us be happy as we reach out to Him in prayer. I know
this to be true!

I love you all! I hope all is well and you have a blessed week!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Transfers...

We are moving forward towards another transfer. Elder Hedrick and I will
be staying together. We are so excited! We get along great and we
teach super well together. It's a dandy time here in the Stonerigde,
Dewey, Bagdad wards, and the Kirkland branch!

This week we got to see lots of cows. I love cows! This time here in
the Prescott/Prescott Valley zone has built up in me a strong desire to be
around these large animals. My dad has always told me that he wants to
be a cowboy when he grows up, now I'm understanding why. This city boy
is turning country.

We started teaching someone new this week. When I was serving in
Kirkland I saw this young woman named Aeriel 3 times a week. She works
at the only gas station, so we frequently were going there. I tried to
get her interested in the gospel for 3 months. The week I leave, she
goes to church. Now we are teaching her the lessons and she loves it!
She told us that she thought my first name was elder the whole 3
months I was there. Now she understands that it's just a title haha.
I'm so excited that she's wanting to learn more now though! When I
first met her I had a really strong feeling that I was suppose to
teach her the gospel. When I was getting transferred I got bummed out
that I didn't get that chance, but now here it is! It's been a
testimony building experience for me. I have learned that as I have
faith in the Lord, He will bless me with the opportunities that He
promises me. The Holy Ghost really does give us promises and direction
for God!

This week is the week that all the Sister missionaries I came out with
are going home. It's crazy to see those strong missionaries leaving
the field after completing their whole mission. I've been doing this
for over 18 months now! It's hard to believe. I feel like I've just
started some days. Other days it feels like it's been way over 18
months though haha. Time is such a weird thing. I'm so excited to be
serving until the end of September though! I have so much more I need
to accomplish and more people I need to invite to come closer to
Christ before I can go home!

Well I love you all! I hope all is peaceful. Remember that there can
always be peace even if times look bleak. I've learned this quite a
bit on my mission. Even when I'm down, or the situation doesn't turn
out positively, I know that we can find peace from our Father in
Heaven as we reach out to Him in prayer. He loves us all and will send
the Holy Ghost to comfort us and guide us.

-Elder Toph Tribe

Pics: Cows that I got to play with! Then 4 of the Sisters I came out
with that are going home with 4 of the Elders who came out at the same
time. Then Elder Hedrick pondering Mosiah chapters 1 and 2 haha.

Come listen to a prophets voice!

Well we had quite the week here in Prescott Valley! The highlight of
the week was the crowning event of General Conference. We had the
opportunity it listen to the general authorities of the church give us
guidance and council. It was wonderful! Such a inspirational and
uplifting message. My favorite is the opportunity that I have to feel
of the Holy Ghost telling me the things in my personal life that I
need to improve. It is so nice to have that direction to be able to
move forward and come closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ.

We had the chance to go to a machine shop owned by a member. We flew a
flight simulator that was so much fun!

We did a lot of service this week. We moved rock, dirt, and lots of
tree debris. Physical labor was such a nice thing. It's been far too
long. It's definitely a satisfying work.

John, the man who was baptized on the 18th, is on fire. He has such a
strong testimony of this gospel. This week we started teaching his
kids. He was so excited that he set a date for his 2 sons to be
baptized on the 30th of this month. The boys were so excited because
their dad was. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson!

Thank you all for the love and support! Everyone should go back and
read over the conference talks when they come out. They were such
motivating and inspiring messages. As you prayerfully read them, you
will receive the guidance you need in your life. I love you all! Have
a great week!!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Christ lives!

This week was grand! The week closed off with all 3 of the people who
got baptized receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost on Easter Sunday.
What a wonderful way to celebrate Easter! We are all thinking of the
eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and here are 3 people utilizing it
perfectly. They chose to put their old life behind them and move
forward being reborn with Christ as their exemplar.

Beth Ann's baptism was this past Saturday. She asked me to be the one
who baptized her. It was such an honor! After she was baptized she
stood in the water with a huge grin and savored the moment and the
incredible Spirit that was there. It was so touching. Her grandpa, who
is not a member, came to support her. After the service, he was
contacted by one of our members who felt the strongest urge to go talk
to him. It turns out that he now wants to be baptized too! We are
hopefully going to start teaching him this week!

Easter Sunday was pretty fun. We got invited to join a couple families
as they got together to celebrate. We went to a park with a bunch of
little kids and played with baby bunnies! It was a lot of fun. The
children ranged from 1 year olds to 12 year olds. The bunnies enjoyed
the older kids a little more, but everyone had fun playing with them.
Then we got to enjoy brownies and we read scriptures with them. It was
a pretty great Easter!

We have been going non stop as a companionship every day. We work
incredibly hard with all that we have to do. Our area is doing great
and we are so thankful for that. We have had a lot of big changes in
our zone, like missionaries moving housing and companionships
switching to different members homes to live. This falls on our
shoulders to make sure it happens smoothly. It's also our
responsibility to go and scrub the house they are leaving. This is
hours of hard cleaning. We get pretty exhausted with all this. We will
be planning, and I'll say something and not get a response. I turn
around to find my companion sleeping in various positions. It's pretty
amusing to see how he falls asleep. I don't blame him though, I'm
pretty tired myself! It's only happened a couple of times, but I still
find it super funny.

The work moves forward at a quickened pace. I'm so ecstatic to be
here! The members are incredible, I love my companion, the zone is
excited, and I'm so happy! I can promise each of you that the Book of
Mormon is true. I read it daily, and I find so much peace from it. If
it wasn't for this book, the stress would over run me. This book has
brought me more joy, than anything else in my life. This has happened
because it is the true word of God. He sends His love to each of us
through His holy word. I know this to be true because of the
experiences in my life.

I love you all and thank you for all you do. Keep your head up and
press forward!

-Elder Toph Tribe

2 baptisms!

We had 2 baptisms this week! It was so amazing! I loved it so much!!
We had one Friday for a man named John. When we teach people as
missionaries, we try to help them have the end in mind. We want them
to be planning for making it into the temple and the celestial
kingdom. He understands that perfectly! His goal is to be sealed to
his family in one year. He wants to do baptisms for the dead monthly
with his kids once we baptize them. Once he's retired he wants to work
as a temple worker. His goal is for his kids to serve missions and
have their kids serve missions. He wants all his children and
descendants to be in the celestial kingdom with him. He's the man!!
Then Saturday we had a baptism for a 9 year old girl named Alana.
She's super cute! She was a little timid at first. She doesn't like to
talk to anyone but her immediate family. She warmed up to us and she
loves the gospel. She loves being able to know that she'll have her
family forever. It was such a great 2 days!

This week I left my sunglasses on the dash of our truck for a few
hours. It was a very warm day and the sun was beating down. The frame
of my sunglasses snapped from the heat! Not only that, but Elder
Hedrick's sunglass lens fell off of his and won't go back in. So now
we're sunglassless in the Arizona desert...

This week Elder Hedrick and I hit the standard of excellence for our
mission. We've been having a lot of success and our members are
helping us so much! I'm so excited to be here at this time. The Lord
is truly blessing us. We found 4 new people to teach this week!

I love the gospel. I love the scriptures. I love my savior Jesus
Christ. I love being able to bring happiness to others. I love all the
support that each of you give me. I hope everything is great. I love
you all! Have a dandy week!!

-Elder Toph Tribe

What a week!

What a week! This week we had some great experiences. We had the
opportunity to find 4 new investigators to teach. We solidified 3
peoples baptismal dates for these next 2 weeks. We put another person
on date for the 9th of April. We had a day with a general authority.
Every one got sick at one point or another in our apartment. Kind of a
week full of craziness!

Last week we received a name to go visit from church head quarters in
SLC. People can go online and send in their friends and family members
information and missionaries will go visit them. We went to the house
the day we got it and she kind of blew us off. Another day we had just finished an appointment and were headed to our
next appointment and I had the overwhelming feeling to go to her
house. I changed our course and headed toward her house. My companion
asked if I got a prompting and I said, "yes." He just sat back and
said, "well I'm glad we're going then." We got to her house and there
were lots of packages on her doorstep. She answered the door and
invited us graciously in. We carried  the packages in her house for her
and sat down to begin teaching. We found out that her dog and closest
friend had just passed away. They had passed away the very day that we
had stopped by. She didn't know how to react that day because the
friend who had died was a Mormon. She wants to learn more and is
excited to be able to live with her loved ones again!

John will be baptized this Friday! He's pretty amped about it! We're
going to start teaching his 3 children next week. He's so excited
because we let him know that he'll be able to baptize his children. He
is also even more excited to be able to be married in the temple and
have his children sealed to him. All  he wants is a forever family. I
don't blame him either, because that is exactly what I want too!
Seeing this family grow so close together has made me so incredibly
happy. They were so ready for the gospel. It's astounding!

Alana is also ready to be baptized this Saturday! She's one of the
shyest 9 year olds I've ever met, but she has a heart of gold. She's
determined to be able to be baptized and come to church every week.
Despite her shyness, she loves primary and spending time with other
children. She invited her whole class to her baptism and they said
that they'll come.

Elder Arnold from the quorum of the 70 came and spent a couple of days
with our mission. This past Thursday we were able to go down to the Phoenix
Valley and discuss with this inspired man. Our meetings started at 9
and went until 5. It was a long day, but it was so revelatory. It
helped me realize so much. I felt the Spirit of God telling me the
little things I need to improve on to be the best that I can be. I am
so grateful for that opportunity!

Our house has been passing a flu bug around. It started with Elder
Hedrick, then went to Elder Wheeler, then Elder Phipps, and now it's
landed on me. Not the most fun, but members have been overly generous
by giving us a medicine. I'm praying that it'll pass quickly.

This is an amazing place to be. I am so happy to be here at this time.
I know I'm suppose to be here. I know that Jesus Christ is the head of
this church and he guides the leaders who inspire us. I'm so thankful
for the knowledge that there is a prophet on the earth today.

I love you all and hope all is delightsome!

-Elder Toph