Week 55: The Week of Pizza...and Transfers!

Erick's Baptism!

Ayo wuz good

This week was overall pretty good. Of course, lots of pickleball, especially now that the weather is cooler too. Fall is great in UT! We also had pizza for lunch and/or dinner like 5 times this week. Pretty epic. There is transfer news too, but more on that later...

Tuesday was Don Joaquin's per usual, but when we were there we saw Jason Gray from Studio C! He was wearing a fake mustache but I still recognized him. We went up and said hi after we were done eating and he said, "I didn't dress like this just to come here, we're just filming a commercial." So that was cool.

We also got to start teaching John on Tuesday! He lives in the care center and he is the sweetest old dude ever. He used to live in Park City and just skiied all the time. He's been in a couple different care centers, but he was telling us that he really wants to get out of assisted living and live on his own again in Park City. He is a very faithful man, and he said that losing his leg really brought him closer to God. He has such a firm testimony in God and Jesus Christ and it was so cool getting to talk with him. He said the Elders that were teaching him in his last care center really wanted him to get baptized, but his only concern was that he didn't want to make a promise with God that he didn't feel like he could keep. We're gonna be meeting with him every Tuesday from now on, and he comes to the sacrament meeting in the care center every week too. He's just the best.

Wednesday we were knocking around in the Vineyard 5th ward townhomes, and unfortunately Henry C. Eyring and his family have already moved out, so we decided to see who the new move-in was. We knocked on the door, and to my surprise, the guy that opened the door was my friend Micheal, my drumline captain from BYU! I also got to see him at the Orem Summerfest parade, but now he lives in my area! We talked for a bit, and it was so good to see an old friend. Elder Toro must've been pretty confused when I hugged a random dude that opened the door though ahaha.

Thursday was an interesting day. We didn't really have a lot to do, but on our way to knock some more townhomes in the Vineyard 8th ward, I guess I had a prompting to go drop off a note at Adrian's apartment. We hadn't seen him in a while, and we only have his wife Theresa's number, so we decided to change our plans and drop off the note. As we were getting off our bikes, I asked Elder Toro what he thought about doing the note instead of knocking and he said, "I thought the same thing!" After we made the note we biked over to their apartment building, and Adrian and Theresa were getting out of their car! They were right there! Theresa was on her way out, but we went up to the apartment with Adrian and got to talk for a bit. He really liked church when he came, and he said he can really tell that Satan is working on him and Theresa, which is very true! He still very much wants to keep doing what God wants him to do, so we asked how he feels about getting baptized, and he said he wants to get baptized!! He's going on a trip for work to Logan for the next 2 weeks, but when he comes back it's going to be great teaching him!!

Friday we got to meet with Adbul and Byan again. Abdul made it pretty clear that he has no intention of converting and leaving Islam, but that he is still very much willing to learn about the Church. We taught them the plan of salvation, but we also answered lots of their questions about all kinds of stuff in the Church. They're both very smart and very faithful people, so they had lots of great questions. I learned a lot about Islam too and it was fascinating! Byan still wants to go to a church meeting, but Abdul is still a little hesitant about it. We told them we could give them a private tour of a church building though, and they both really liked that idea! Abdul is gonna be out of town next week, but the following week that should be awesome!

Saturday was cool because Erick finally got baptized! I have been working with Erick every since I came to this area, and it has been so great. Erick's family is awesome, and through us teaching Erick all this time, they've started coming back to church too! Erick even asked me to baptize him, which was a really cool experience. Elder Toro got to confirm him in sacrament meeting the next day too. President and Sister Evanson came to the baptism too, and when President Evanson saw me dressed in all white to baptize Erick he said, "You look good in white Elder."

Which brings us to Sunday and transfer news. Rather bittersweetly, my time in (the) Vineyard has come to an end. I have been here all summer and I have seen so much growth in myself from being here. As great of an area as it is, it's still been hard and there have been some very rough days. In the last few days I've truly seen the inspiration behind me being assigned Elder Toro as my companion. Not because I got to be his trainer, but because he has been amazingly patient with me as I have gone through some of the rough days here. Hitting my year mark was sort of like having a mid-life crisis, and Elder Toro never complained got upset with me ever. I've truly been blessed.

With that, I'm being transferred to..........Draper!! I bet none of you thought that! I doubt you even knew that was in the Orem mission. I'm going to the Draper Suncrest stake, which is those houses way up on the hill behind Alpine. There's actually a road that goes over the mountain there that goes right to the Draper temple, so it's technically in Draper and right on the border of the mission! I will also be a zone leader of the Lehi zone, and my new companion is Elder Ropka, who is actually my mission grandpa haha. This will be his last transfer before going home too. I already asked him if he has a pickleball paddle, which he does, so everything is going to be just fine.

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Snyder