February 9, 2015

The Easy Bake Chicken Dinner I made turned out really well! It was funny, they (The Francoms and Elder Lindley) were like, "We didn't know you could cook so well!" Then Elder Lindley said, "Why haven't you cooked yet?! I've been cooking all this time and you didn't say anything!?" haha :D Well looks like I got caught...

Here's the recipe:

Easy Bake Chicken

Serves 4 - Double and Triple as necessary for extra sauce

2 Cans Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 Can Evaporated Milk

4 Chicken Breasts

Salt/Pepper/Paprika

Whisk together the soup and milk.  Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.  Spread a thin layer of soup mixture in bottom of pan.  Place the chicken in the pan and sprinkle with spices. Pour the rest of the soup mixture over the chicken.  Bake at 350 degrees for 60-90 minutes until chicken is cooked.  Serve with Rice or Noodles and Veggies.  ENJOY!

Our new Zone Leader is Elder Parker, so I of course stole his name tag to take a picture smile emoticon 

Teddy's baptism with his brother-in-law Patrick baptizing him

A Recent-Convert got home on Wednesday and we made a sign for him. I free handed the Super Man symbol. I was very surprised that it came out that well. (I guess I did get some of my Mom's artistic ability)

In the game of life, God the coach, doesn't care whether you signed a big contract or got your name in the record books. All He cares about is getting people home and winning this game! He weeps for anyone who is “stranded on base”. In sports…only your pride is on the line, but in the game of life…souls are on the line. The team that establishes a camaraderie and a love for each other wants to win for each other and for the coach. They become willing to do anything for each other in order to accomplish the purposes of the team. They “forget themselves” as individuals and unite around the common goal. They do the little things right and everything else falls into place.

October 20, 2014

I actually just received an email from Elder Rawlings.  One of the investigators that we found and started to teach is getting baptized next week!  I am so excited and glad to hear that he is finally getting baptized!  

Enduring to the End

Since I like to run, I see Enduring to the End like I see running.  In order to gain our fullest potential we must, Endure to the End.  Unfortunately it is not all easy.  In Cross Country, you have to run a 5K. In order to be successful you have to set a comfortable and steady race, you don't want to go too fast in the beginning and hit a wall in the middle but you also don't want to go too slow and miss the opportunity you would have had if you went your "perfect" pace.  Now, it takes a lot of practice to build "endurance" to get that perfect pace, but as we practice to be better, we run into obstacles on our path, a fallen branch, you twist your ankle, you trip and fall. Because of those obstacles you get off the path and lose your pace. Enduring is all about getting back up and continuing to try your hardest.

Elder Buckner (my trainer) goes home in 2 days!  He is seriously like the older brother I never had.  I love that kid! or MAN, I guess I should say.

My District (notice our matching ties)

Elder Mood, Elder Burrell, Sister McDonald, Elder McDonald, Elder Abney, Sister Abney, me, Elder Steingraber (District leader). 

Front row: Sister Golden, Sister Arave, Sister Smith and Sister Jones.

I came out with Elder Steingraber and Sister Smith! It's a fun District!

How Is Your Scripture Reading Going?

It really is not easy to stay in the boat in the time that we are living in today. But our Heavenly Father knew hard times would come so he gave us resources to help us stay in the boat like scriptures and praying! Things will get shaky, but we will always be able to ride through the storm.

The choice is OURS. It's what we make of the hard things we go through.

Some Early Halloween Fun!

It Is Crazy How The Gospel Changes Us

Holy smokes! Today was phenomenal... I honestly have no idea who I am anymore.  It is crazy how the Gospel changes us.  So today we met with Elder Baxter. I sang in a 4 man choir and I gave a talk on the Atonement.  Elder Baxter is friends with Jim Woodward.  It was such a powerful meeting with Elder Baxter. The one thing I will share with you is the quote he left us with:

"Jesus died for you, will you live for him?"

 I love that quote so much!

MOM REPONSE:  Okay, wait.  You sang in a 4 Man Choir?  Wait. WHAT???  If you know Parker at all, even just a wee bit, you would know that he would NEVER sing.  Like ever.  No. Seriously. EVER.

Saturday, November 16, Elder Beach had the awesome opportunity to baptize one of the Sister Missionaries Investigators.

So everything went great for the baptism! Everyone was there, except for her father unfortunately. So it comes time to perform it. We're down in the font, I tell her to come closer to the front since she is taller. I go to dunk her under and as we go down I see that if she continues she is going to hit her head. So I Parker, being a man large in stature, and also having received much strength of the Lord, therefore I did pick her up and slide her out of the way so she would not hit her head. ( 1 Nephi 4:31 ;))  It went great! I only had to do it once!

Believe it or not, I have made an amazing lesson to teach families at dinner appointments. The pictures are the lesson, I'll explain. The lesson is based on Alma 50. The chapter in which Moroni is preparing the cities for war. We just go through the chapter starting in verse 1

Verse 1 It talks about Heaps of Earth around the city

Heaps of Earth and Works of Timber. verse 1-2 

Frames of Pickets around as well 

He then added Towers at each corner 

He did all that to make it impossible for the Lamanites to attack them.

On the back of the Lamanites, you guessed it. Satan 

Then on the back of the city, you write the family's name. After you set it all up, you turn over all the pieces. 

On the back of all of towers, heaps of earth, works of timber. and the pickets are principles of our gospel like: Prayer, FHE, Prophet, scriptures, the Restored Gospel, etc. 

Service Opens The Door For The Spirit

1st Area: Cary, NC

1st Companion:  Elder Buckner, Cedar Hills, Utah

"You could say I consider myself a HERO!"

Ello~

I actually have found 4 new investigators this last week! We were riding around in a neighborhood, and saw an elderly couple raking leaves. I was on exchanges with my District Leader, who just wanted to leave them alone and said to just go past them. I told him no, I have a feeling we should talk to them. They were not interested in a message, but I asked if they would like some help to finish raking their leaves. They gladly accepted, not expecting us to offer help. We set up a date to come back this next week to help them with their backyard and said they would love to hear a message.

After we finished with them, we continued riding our bikes and found a black woman, probably around her mid 20's  raking her yard. We asked if we could help her as well. She declined, but said she would love for us to come back and share a message this week also!

Then a while later, to kill time, haha, I decided to knock on a door. A man answered and said "I know who you are, I would love to listen, but I have to go pick up my kids." Elder Buckner and I are going back over to his house tonight to teach him the Restoration. I am so excited to see what the rest of this week will bring!  Oh! Saturday, I have been asked to baptize one of the Sister Missionaries Investigators!

Man! That does sound like a busy church week! Not as busy as mine every week ;) No I have not been able to do another temple session! I want to so bad though! It's so tempting since we are so close to the Temple here! We only get to go twice a year, before every General Conference. I did get to go once in the MTC.

Also, I have been told a lot lately that I look like Harry Potter. So I think it would be funny if you find a Gryffindor color kinda tie and send that! ;)  Elder Buckner just barely got me interested in ties... I have no idea why haha. It like hit me over night. It was weird.

Believe it or not, I haven’t had fast food for about a month!  We do eat at members’ homes but mostly we cook for ourselves.

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." ~Ether 12:6

This verse holds such an incredible promise, all we have to do is recognize that we need God's help, ask Him for help trusting that He will in fact help and through grace He will bless us. I personally have received strength as I have struggled with my weaknesses, and though the road is long and I have far to go this verse brings me such comfort as I walk that road.

Railroad

My lil buddy-Riley.  His parents gave us a ride to Stake Conference

We find

We teach

We baptize

We RESCUE

We establish the church as NCRM missionaries!

"You could say I LOVE my new camera!"