2/26/2018

Helllooooo! How’s everyone doing?! I’m doing pretty great myself. Life is going good, the work is going good here and I have no reason to complain!

Oh wait, I might.... it’s cold here now!!! I don’t know what it is but winter came late and now it’s just super cold and I’m like dying. Like I didn’t think I liked the heat that much, but the cold is worse now I think. Arizona changes you man, it changes you good. Now my aunt can’t laugh at the fact that i wear a jacket. 

And apparently there is going to be a cold front coming in from Idaho? Come on Idaho. 

I know that when I get back I’m literally going to be dying in the winter  

But 120 here isn’t very enjoyable either. So I just hate everything I guess. No jk  

This week went by super quick, and we just did work work work! We have good stuff going on here in the area. People are coming to church and progressing. So hopefully that leads to baptism. Every pray!!

On Saturday we helped out on the Phoenix Marathon. We had the morning shift, so we literally had to get up at 3:45 in the morning. Yes, I took a nap after that service. I felt like it was warranted. But it was actually super fun (And yes it was cold, I was dying and my feet and hands hurt)! we prepared everything before they started the race, and then once they started we just held out little cups of water and Gatorade for them to drink when they passed by. And we cheered them on of course. So I had some cheers in me! No I didn’t actually i forgot all of them. But I screamed a lot and then my throat hurt afterwards and I was hoping to lose my voice cause that has never happened to me and I kind of wanted to experience it. But I didn’t. It was just a little raspy. 

Today for P-day we took a little road trip. It was awesome! I will definitely include pictures. We saw so many cool things that they have over in those little towns in Globe, Miami, this place called tortilla flat, etc. Some of it kind of reminded me of home and going to these like “historic” places and it actually just being super ghetto but super fun. 

Some things I’ve been working on lately, just so you all know, are charity/love and humility. Humility is hard sometimes. Oh and if you’re humble, don’t say you’re humble. Or else you’re not humble. 

But charity and love is hard! Because as missionaries we deal with every type of person, and to have a Christ like love for all of those people isn’t the easiest thing. Sometimes people say things, do things, or whatever it may be that just gets on your nerves. Or maybe it’s the stuff that they don’t do that gets on your nerves. But you know what? They’re all children of God! And you know what He and Jesus Christ would do? Love them. So let’s all love people! Despite their differences! Cause our purpose is to be like Christ and grow and learn and follow the commandments and all that stuff. Shouldn’t we all be trying to do that? We all essentially have the same purpose, even though some people might not know it!

Christ was the perfect example of charity. Because, charity is the pure love of CHRIST. 

Have a fantastic week everyone. Life is good. 

Élder Hepworth 

 

 

2/19/2018

¡Hola a todos! 

This week was goooood. I’m suuuuper exhausted. That’s a good sign right? 

We have a lot of investigators to teach and a lot of them seem to be pretty serious about this. It’s just that it’s a slow process. It’ll take a while, like it always does. But it’s awesome! People are keeping commitments, keeping appointments, etc. It’s great! I feel like the challenge is getting to church for them. I mean, like I get it. I remember when I was younger I would fake being sick so I wouldn’t have to go to church. I even remember walking around the house so quietly so as to not wake them up so we wouldn’t have to go to church. I was terrible!!! (whoops sorry Mom and Dad .... ). So I understand why some people might not be like super pumped to go, but now I realize that it’s the best thing ever. And they need to go (Duh)! 

One thing that we’re told to do is to act devastated when people don’t keep their commitments. Why do we do that? Because we love them! We want to see them progress and find happiness and find that this church is super legit, and when they don’t keep commitments it’s like ... 

Elder Ghormley and I are working super hard. Trying to be as obedient as can be. Obedience is key. Super key. 

Obey your parents children. Obey the lords commandments children. 

We are teaching this one investigator that is so awesome! He is from Venezuela and he is teaching us some Spanish while we’re teaching him a little bit of English WHILE we teach him about the gospel. He is awesome. He will straight up tell us if we sound white  or if we say something wrong. He is one of the investigators that seems really serious. We taught him part of the restoration in the first lesson cause that’s just how that lesson worked out, and we asked him if he would read the rest of the pamphlet. He read the whole thing. We asked him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon, he read it. He remembers like all of it too. Sometimes when we teach people don’t remember much or like anything of what they read. And so it’s always good to go back with them and read along and help them understand. Understanding is better than just rushing through the lessons. But so we were just going through the rest of the restoration because we wanted to talk to him more about Joseph Smith. And he was just like “yeah it talks about that in the pamphlet. Yeah that’s when the priesthood was restored.” And stuff like that. And it just made me so happy hahaha  and he told us “you know I haven’t had the chance to pray to ask God if this book is true, but I know that’s what I need to do because he’s the one that knows. He will answer my prayers.” And I was like... yes. Amen, Wilmer. 

Some of you are probably thinking like... wow, good for him. He read the Book of Mormon and you’re doing your job as a missionary. It’s a lot more exciting than that! If you realized how important the Book of Mormon is, and how many people take it for granted, you would be jumping for joy! My work here is to bring people to Christ, and many think that they’re fine and they don’t need any of what we’re teaching them. So when you come across that person that takes you seriously, reads, prays, it’s a win. 

This week we were really busy it seems like. And I was really just so tired yesterday! It’s a good feeling cause you know you’re doing something right, but at the same time is stinks because you’re like wow all I want right now is a gooooood nap  

Well, that was my week! Love you all. Keep working hard. Keep being tired cause that’s what life is. Tired. Life is tired. 

 

Élder Hepworth 

2/12/2018

Hey everyone! I’m here! P Day was just switched up cause we had the opportunity to go to the temple. I love going to the temple. Go to it often everybody. It’s a wonderful place!!

Today we decided to do sealings. It was such a wonderful experience. The spirit was very strong there. 

This week went by pretty fast!! And I would definitely say the highlight of my week was when Elder Cook and his wife and Elder Uceda came to our mission. They came to talk to us in a 2 hour conference. It was super enlightening and they didn’t chew us out! We must be a good mission  they talked to us about how when we invite people to do things, we need to EXHORT them. We need to invite with our hearts and not with our mouths. Just like it’s done in the Book of Mormon! And Elder Cook talked to us about how we need to have an urgency while doing this work. We need to work hard! 

You know... there are plenty of trials in the mission. Like for me there was the language (HARD STUFF). You got rejection, people who scream at you (and you have to be nice to them), it’s sometimes hard to find people who want to progress and be baptized, etc. But I think the biggest one for me is tiredness. Work hard and never sleep. That’s the life as a missionary! If any of you are going to serve a mission, yes. Yes you will always be tired. But it is such a rewarding feeling. 

Oh yeah, and I also got to shake their hands!! And he stared into my soul too. Intimidating? Nah. 

The people in the Valencia ward are beasts. They’re so helpful! And we appreciate it so much as missionaries. People, help the missionaries out. Members are missionaries too! We need people helping us fellowship our investigators and all that. And!! You’ll be blessed for your efforts  

So I recently realized that this transfer ends in 2 weeks and then after that I will only have 4 left in the mission. But hey, who’s counting?  Time goes by so fast and it’s crazy!! I’m not ready for real life. I hear about “college” and it scares me  nah jk. You’ve got to face reality, but I’ve still got a lot of time here and that’s comforting. 

I hope you guys are just loving life as you should be!! Be happy. Like really. Isn’t being sad or mad like exhausting? Ugh.

Love you all!! You’re the best... to whoever reads my emails. How many of you just skip over the email and see the pictures??? (..... pfft... I don’t do that)

Élder Hepworth 

2/05/2018

Hey everyone!! 

It was a pretty good week!! Some weeks are better than others, definitely. 

I don’t remember if I told you guys last week, but I hiked Flatiron again last Monday! For the fourth time. And you guys are probably thinking like yeah whoopity doo but it’s actually a big thing. Cause it’s intense and it’s a good butt workout if any of you wanna try it some day if you’re down here in Arizona haha. 

We had exchanges once again this week, just like we do every transfer. I was with the district leader so he was evaluating my skills. We had a super good lesson with a guy from Venezuela. He is super energetic and seems to be pretty comfortable with us. The exchange was good! Elder Johnson (district leader) is on crutches because he has something all messed up in his knee and so it was super hard to walk and get up stairs. He did it! But i felt bad because we had to go up a few staircases. He got a super good workout though.. I guess haha. 

So I heard the super bowl was last night! You wanna know how far I am out of the loop? I didn’t even know that the super bowl was going on, until they were already playing. The guy that we live with had it on and my companion told me and I was like... what that’s today?! ..... cool. Well let’s go to work cause we can’t watch it! Hahahaha 

The Valencia ward is so awesome. The members are so willing to help us out and they even most times look forward to going and visiting families with us. It’s super easy to get them to come out with us to lessons. It’s a very missionary minded ward and I love it.

 We also have been finding people that are progressing and there’s some good stuff going on. Investigators are showing up to parties and ward activities and dinner with members. Now we just need them to go to church!!! That’s always the hardest thing. That investigators get to church. It’s super easy for us to find new investigators and teach them everything, but when it comes to going to church... well, they just don’t. And we do everything we can. But, there’s no reason to complain. Just got to keep working hard! 

Élder Ghormley and I get along super well. I don’t know if it’s just cause I keep being put with people that I get along with, or if I’m just super patient. Cause I rarely get angry. I’m not the most patient person in the world though, so maybe the lord is just blessing me with wonderful companions. Elder Ghormley is super funny and we literally laugh all the time. He’s super patient with his Spanish. Since he’s new, it’s frustrating!! I was in his shoes. But if he messes up he laughs about it and he’s always grateful for the advice I give him and when I translate things for him (I think). 

Everything is dandy here in Arizona! Even the weather! We really didn’t have a winter this year. It was just another spring. It didn’t get cold at all and now it’ll get into the 70’s-80’s during the day. 

Love you all and I hope you’re just as happy as can be! 

Élder Hepworth