Jones visit

Thanks for great friends. Todd and Shauna Jones were in Utah for the week and took Derek and Elder Jimenez out for lunch at the Lion's House Cafe and to Temple Square. They had a great visit and sent some picture to Ron and Kristine. Thanks Jones'

Witnessing a miracle

Hello everyone!

     This week was great, Elder Jimenez and I have been focusing on working through members to find more investigators. It has been going well and we have some new names to work with now, which is great! 

     Pioneer Day was fun! President said we had to be in our apartments by 6pm so no one would do stupid stuff or get hurt or anything, but before that we got to see a little bit of it! We missed the parade because it happens in downtown and we are in Rose Park so we missed the parade but in the afternoon we went downtown for a bit with a member to talk to people. We sent a bunch of referrals for missionaries all over Utah that day. We did that because honestly the streets and houses in our area were simply empty. Everyone was downtown or with family celebrating so we literally had nothing to do, so we just went contacting where everyone was! We also got lots of food and drinks from some Tongans which was nice!

     We saw some of the fireworks too, we had a pretty good view from our house so that was sweet!

     We also were cleaning out a lady's garage the other day and she let us have some of her extra Christmas lights. What we did with them you can see in our Jesus picture attached below. That shrine hangs gloriously in our house now hahaha. 

          Our week was kind of tough because people were partying pretty much all weekend. We had 10 set lessons for Saturday and all of them cancelled except for 1. It was tough, but that's part of the Lord's work! We have a bunch of set lessons this week so we'll see how that goes!

     Have a great week! I want you to read this article on LDS.org it's really good. I really love the message it shares about Jesus Christ. I testify that the doctrine within is true, without Christ we are simply nothing. We have no hope and no future without him. https://www.lds.org/liahona/2015/01/youth/why-is-jesus-christ-important-in-my-life?cid=HP_TH_7-23-2015_dPTH_fLHNA_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng

     I also have a miracle to share with you!

     Juan Carlos is on date for baptism on August 8th. He told us he had a dream where two men appeared and one of them was Jesus Christ, he wasn't sure who the other one was. Jesus Christ then told Juan that he needed to be baptized in the church that was established through this man (the other man in the dream). Juan then started describing what the man looked like and how he knew without a doubt that this man was a prophet of God. We then showed him a picture of Joseph Smith and Juan then told us that Joseph Smith was the man in his dream. We then invited him to be baptized and he said yes! It was amazing. I know the Lord answers prayers in marvelous and miraculous ways! I know Juan had a true desire to find the truth and he did. I'm also grateful because I've been praying for Juan to receive an answer to his prayers ever since I met him, so the Lord has answered multiple prayers with this miracle. I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK SO MUCH!!!!!

New Comp

Hey everyone!

     My new companion is Elder Jimenez! He's from the Dominican Republic and he is awesome! He did the same thing that I did at the start of my mission, he had problems with his visa and residency so he has already been on his mission for 14 months! 

     He is a Zone Leader with me now and it's been awesome! We've been working hard and yesterday we put someone on date for baptism, his name is Juan Carlos and he's doing great! We're going to keep working with him to make sure he is prepared to be baptized.

      Elder Jimenez was serving in the D.R. for 14 months so he is a very experienced missionary. I have learned a lot from him already. He also doesn't know English so I've been teaching him English which has been helping me a lot with my Spanish. We've mostly been speaking Spanish because I have to train him on how to use I-Pads and such, so it's been great! My Spanish has been improving a lot but it's been such a blessing for me to help Elder Jimenez establish a foundation for his English. We're doing great together! Picture of us is attached below.

 

 

     The Zone has been doing awesome! Last Friday we felt like we needed to give some trainings just to pump up the missionaries in our zone. We had some great missionaries give some great trainings about staying diligent and obedient in this work. It was a great experience. We have been seeing results since then too! Since Friday our zone has put 5 people on date for baptism! That's only 3 days! Freak yes!!! It's been such a blessing to serve here.

     As for Dawson, that is pretty cool actually that we both have companions with the same last name right now.

     I love my mission and I love the Lord!

         Love,

             Elder Strate

On his own

Hey everyone!

     Well this is going to be a weird letter, just a heads up. This week Elder Strother and I worked really hard, like extra hard. We did this so Elder Strother could finish his mission strong. We definitely finished strong for him, although we didn't get a baptism this last week, we found some more awesome people to work with and some of the less actives and recent converts have been progressing which is great! We are trying to help everyone get to the temple, so working with these recent converts and less actives has been great! We'll get them there soon enough.

     Elder Strother was an awesome missionary. I was so blessed to serve with an experienced, obedient, and diligent missionary. He was such a great example to me, especially as a zone leader. He also helped me with my Spanish which always helps. As I am writing this he is on a plane back to Bentonville, Arkansas. He was great and I will miss him.

     Well transfers are tomorrow, we get an email on the Monday before transfers (today) which has the transfer board in it. We look at it, see what we are doing and where we are going, and then we do it on Tuesday. That's usually how it works here. We also get to see where other missionaries go in the mission, so it's pretty cool how it works. Well, I looked at the transfer board and I'm staying in Rose Park as a Zone Leader, which is awesome! 

     But here's the weird part, I don't have a companion. I have no idea what's going on, I'm going to call the Assistants after we're done emailing so I can figure out who my companion is going to be. Everyone has been calling me this morning and asking me if I know, but I don't! It's been kinda crazy ever since I saw the transfer board. I am utterly confused and waiting to find out what's going on with me. Everyone is like, Elder Strate! You're going solo man, you'll be the first solo missionary in the history of the church! Haha I'm like, no that's not possible, there must just be a mistake or something. Well once I found out who my new companion is I'll let all of you know. I'm sure whoever it is will be awesome and we'll have a great time together. Living with 2 other comps, I'm still around other missionaries, don't worry.

     Have a great week, and go Cardinals!

        Love,

          Elder Strate

1st Picture is of Elder Strother's ankle, he sprained it in his last mission b-ball game ever. Haha he sprained it pretty bad, his sprained ankle looks like a normal foot now lol.

 

2nd Picture is Elder Montatip! He's from Thailand and he is so funny! He lives in the same house as me.

 

One shoe Elder

 

      Hey everyone!
       I had a very interesting week. First off we had a crazy Canada Day! CANADA is the BEST! I made sure to wear my Canadian tie that day, it was awesome haha. 

      I also went to the doctor for an ingrown toenail that day. I had it for about 3 weeks but it was never bothering me very much. I was also battling it with my mobile pharmacy that my Mom gave me, also known as a first aid kit haha. I did pretty good against it, but I didn't have any cotton balls to put underneath the nail and completely fix the problem. Apparently they are found in the women's
cosmetic section. The doctors told me that but I didn't know that before. Now I will know that for future reference. So we get to the doctors and they told me it was pretty bad, so I had surgery on the
spot. It was fine, they froze up my toe so it didn't hurt, but it did feel pretty weird. The doctor said it was one of the worst ones he had seen for a while. He cut out like 1/3 of my toenail, it was in there
very deep. It was nasty, Elder Strother (my companion) was super grossed out haha. We finished the doctors appointment and afterwards I went to put my shoe on and the doctor was like, "What are you doing? You can't wear a shoe it's not wide enough." 

     That day I rode my bike around prosecuting with only a sock on my right foot lol. So long story short, I haven't worn a shoe on my right foot for almost a week now. I've been wearing a loose sock for protection and a flip flop. I'm doing fine now, I have very little pain in my toe and because I had a minor surgery we got our van back! Yep we have retained the mini van! That was one of my favorite parts of this week, and it was perfect timing because we will have it until Elder Strother finishes
his mission (which is in 1 week)! Haha so yeah I've had a very interesting week proselyting with only 1 shoe on. People are always giving me weird looks and stuff, so I started telling people that
someone stole my right shoe, but only the right one. I don't know what someone would do with only 1 shoe, but oh well haha just kidding.
      We also had July 4th and that was pretty fun too! We got fed like 6 times that day! We would walk around and everyone would invite us in for burgers or some kind of food, it was so awesome! We had to be in our apartments at 6pm that night, but we still got to see some fireworks from outside our house.
     This upcoming week is Elder Strother's last week as a missionary, so we are going to work extra extra hard this week. We have set some great goals for this area and he wants to finish strong. We are going to work as hard as we can this week, so hopefully by next week we will have some people on date for baptism!
     Love you all and have a great week!
      Love,
          Elder Strate

 

       Here's a pic from district meeting this last week. Elder Strother got spoiled because he is going home.

 

 

 

        Here's Joe Ross. He is a Ward Mission Leader in a english ward around here and he is always helping us out! He cooked for us on July 4th, we had a nice BBQ with him.

 

         Elder Hendrick at district meeting gave his training while wearing a Pikachu onesie!

 

New Boundaries

From President Spendlove today;

     I've had a few people ask me about this so here it is. The NEW Utah Salt Lake Cit mission. On July 1st we said farewell to 49 of our dear elders and sisters (22 in the Tooele zone and 27 in the Layton zone) and welcomed in 18 missionaries from the Salt Lake City East mission and our new Salt Lake zone!
     We're now at 137 younger full-time missionaries, 26 senior couples covering 55 stakes in 6 zones. When we arrived 4 months ago we had over 200 younger elders and sisters, 48 senior couples covering 69 stakes and the Wendover district in 8 zones. I miss all the missionaries we've said goodbye to over the last four months but I'm grateful to have a slightly smaller mission to preside over so I can minister more personally to each missionary.
      Onward, ever onward...!