McKay First High School Wrestling Meet

Palmer did a great ob in his first high school wresting meet. His first match he was just figuring everything out. He was pinned.

Second match he won on points!!

His last one he lost on points. He did well for his first meet! He came home pretty happy.

It's fun that McKay, Blaze, Tyler Gottfredson and Thomas Erickson are all wrestling together so the parents get to hang out. 

 

Miss Beverly's Birthday 2024

We love celebrating Beverly's birthday each year! We love her!

Josh has figured out how to talk with Bob, who is both blind and deaf. He puts his AirPods in his ears and calls his phone. It works like a charm and is such a blessing to Bob who doesn't usually communicate with others. 

We are so grateful for this sweet couple. They have been an adopted family to us in Georgia. 
 

Lincoln Mission November 26-December 2 2024

 Holiday season is in full swing and we're doing our best to celebrate while in the middle of nowhere. The village does their part by stringing up a bunch of old bottle lids on a flag pole to look like a Christmas tree and playing every possible remix of "feliz navidad." Nothing better.

Thanksgiving

This past thursday we got all of our together to celebrate and we we're somehow able to make a really good thanksgiving dinner. Mac and cheese, spam stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken sandwiches, patacones, apple cobbler, and chocolate cream pie. Definitely a memorable day. 

Everything Else

The rest of the week kind of blurs together, so I'll just throw out the highlights:

- Isper got baptized!

- a lot of kids are progressing towards baptism

- exchanges with the elders of ustupu

- did a super fun service planting corn

- saw wild scarlet macaws flying overhead

- branch president taught false doctrine in church again

Spiritual Thought

During the Christmas season, if we really focus on Christ and the miracle of His birth and His life, we'll be happier. We'll find a greater desire to serve. And we'll be more anxious to give unto others. Most important of all, our love for Him and our faith in Him will grow. John 3:16. Weyobdo

Elder Nali

Hunter Mission November 26-December 2 2024

 And we're back with another fire week of the Lord’s work! This week was such a happy one full of small miracles and a few big ones

 

The first miracle happened on Thanksgiving Day. Where usually here we don't do anything special because Thanksgiving isn't a thing here, but turns out some of the people in our ward lived a fairly good chunk of their lives in the states, so they signed us up for lunch on Thanksgiving and gave us a feast. It was super awesome and super sweet they tried their best to make it just like home and it turned out wonderful. (The stuffing somehow turned into soup but it tasted delicious anyway ) and in reality it was more like a Thanksgiving dinner because they told us to come later in the day and then had to finish cooking so by the time we started eating we were in dinner time. Really was awesome and tasted great, so I'm happy.

 

We also had an interesting zone breakfast with both the APs and the president of the mission and the breakfast went great but the part that's absolutely the best is the fact the President went out in the field for a day . He decided he wanted to go back to his mission days, so he headed out to an area in the zone and started tracting. It was funny to see how excited he was to actually be interacting with the people and really showed us how much he cares about this work and these people.

 

And the biggest miracle of the entire week is the baptism of Ana and Felipe. I don't know if I will ever be able to be part of a baptism that special for the rest of my mission. It really was the biggest change in a person that I've seen. Felipe had the goal to quit smoking before his baptism and it looked like that was going to take a while so we were planning on pushing the baptismal date until January but then randomly out of nowhere he said "I'm going to be baptized on my birthday" (the original goal and also only a week away from this conversation) he was still smoking 2-3 times a day and we told him this would be hard but he could do it. So, we put the goal of being clean for 3 days before his baptism and he was on track to hit that. But then he surprised all of us and just decided to be done. That next day he didn't smoke a single time and started his clean streak. The next up coming days not only did he focus on staying clean he also focused on improving his mood with his withdrawals and he did it. He made the plan of smiling as big of a smile as he could to any random person that looked at him in the streets and he did it. It was definitely a sight to see, and he slowly got more enthusiasm more energy and strengthened the relationship with his friends and family.

Long story short he got baptized yesterday with 40 of his nonmember friends there to support him (he invited the entire city basically) and then him and his amazing wife Ana were baptized together and then both shared their testimonies to all of their friends there. About 90% of them were crying by the end including Ana and Felipe. I love these people so much and I can't wait to watch their progression as they work towards getting sealed in the temple. 

For the spiritual thought I just want you to reflect on the story of Ana and Felipe and find God within it.

I love you all and hope you have a great rest of your week!

 

Elder Nelson (Hunter)