Level 900 Vortex

New Name Tag (Sister Hewlett)

Hey friends and family! We are in the middle of a big vortex so I dont have much time to write because of transfers. 

We moved our area so we are in the Kingwood 2nd ward. 

Here are some pictures to enjoy :) 

Back to Heaven

Accidentally took a picture while I was laughing and trying to get a picture of something else

This week we had certification and new missionary training where we get to see all of the new missionaries and I just love them so much! It's so fun to see them progress and become better. 

Then we had an awesome lesson with Brian this week. We were able to teach him about the commandments and he is totally ready for baptism. Now we are just waiting for the timing with his mom. On Sunday Brian's whole family came to church so we had 4 people there! They loved it so much and are going to come back next week (except for the daughter that tried to kiss us is going back to France). It was so powerful to see the impact it had on their family and they were so happy. We talked with the daughter about visiting with missionaries and gave her the info she needs. It is powerful because in our church we are all about exaltation and families and I see it coming together for this family and I love them so much. 

PDay Fun

I also got to go back to Vidor aka "heaven". I spent the day with my old companion Elder Robison who is the best ever. 

Trip to Louisiana

This week I really loved this quote, "I promise you that as you strive to be on the Lord’s agenda, nothing will become more important than finding those people you can help and bless."

Elder Ferrell and I love the missionaries here so much and we talk about them all the time. I'm so grateful for them and I know this work is all about people and covenants. And I love the missionaries and the people here so much. Have a great week. 

Slim on the pictures this week

Rollerskating

So this week was nuts. For those that have seen me rollerskating it was a lot like that. It was a struggle but I still enjoyed it a crazy ton. We had 3 exchanges this week and they are just super draining especially when you forget to bring a bed and you sleep on the floor 3 nights of the week.

My first exchange was with Elder Mills in Beaumont YSA. It was super fun because I got to be with my past companion in my past area. We blitzed their area and we were talking to a lot of people on campus. 

Then we drove down to Port Arthur, also my past area, and I went with the English Elders while Elder Ferrell went with Spanish. We went and saw some of the people that I was trying to reactivate when I was there and they were still in the exact same place haha it was like I never left. 

My last exchange was with Elder Wooden who took my mom's class in college. We had a sweet miracle where we got a prompting to go see a member so we went and they needed a blessing right then. When you follow those fleeing thoughts then you will find you are right like 9/10 times. 

Thursday we got to go to the temple which was super cool! Then later that day we were able to teach Brian who is from Ecuador. He is the cutest little kid I have ever met. We were teaching him the plan of salvation and when we taught him about it and the resurrection he said, "wow, that is like the best gift ever" and "God really just wants us to be happy, I like to call it the plan of happiness"
He is the best and we are going to talk with his mom about him getting baptized. yesterday when he left he said he loves when we come over and was excited for us to come back. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary and I love this work and my companion and this mission! I too am glad that Jesus Christ was resurrected because that means that we all will be one day.  

Love you all!

Visit from Elder Kopishcke

Elder Ferrell and Elder Larson

Well this week was something.....I don't think I have ever been more tired in my entire life haha. We had Elder Kopishcke of the 70 with us from Sunday-Wednesday. We had a Zone conference on 2 of the days and then an MLC. It was super powerful and he taught us a ton of things. Elder Kopishcke's wife was the funniest person ever haha. We were sitting waiting for MLC to start and she came up and shook our hands and told Elder Ferrell and I, "You AP's have the funniest faces". Elder Ferrell and I look at each other and were super confused haha but then she just said, "I mean in like a positive way". Not really sure what she was trying to get at but it was super funny. MLC was so good because all of the missionaries that are leaders in our mission right now are really good friends and so there is a lot of honesty and trust in that group so we are able to talk really openly with each other. After he left Elder Ferrell and I went to the office to do some things and we hit a wall haha then we just thought everything was funny.

Right before Elder Kopishcke left he told me and Elder Ferrell, "you know what to do now right? You need to meet with President and decide what you are going to do because of this". The next day we got to meet with President and Sister Hewlett and talk about the things we learned and what we can impliment in our mission. It was also President Hewlett's birthday that day so we had some missionaries come over and we had a surprise party for him. President and SIster Hewlett are the best people ever! I love them so much.

This weekend we had ward conference so there were a ton of people from the Fall Creek ward! It was so awesome to see them and I love those members so much! We also got to see President Rascone speak so that was awesome. This next week we have the opportunity to go the the temple and we have 3 exchanges so it is going to be a busy one! 

One of the things I loved that Elder Kopishcke talked to us was about the power of the Book of Mormon. The authors were Nephi and Jacob who wrote about Isaiah. Then you have Mormon and Moroni who talked about the Brother of Jared. And in the middle of those 6 people you had the Savior's personal ministry to the Nephites. The thing that all of those people had in common was they were eye-witnesses of the Savior. When we read about the Book of Mormon we learn about the Savior so read it. I know it will help you learn more about the Savior. 

Love you all and have a great week!!!

(also before you think I'm breaking the rules mom President told us to take our Pday until 6 because President wanted to interview us today so we didn't get done with meetings until like noon)

Grip It and Rip It Fat Bike Edition

Man this week was super cold. On Saturday it was like 30 degrees. I'm super sensitive to the cold now so I put on like 5 layers and then just went out and sent it.

This week we went on 2 exchanges with some Zone Leaders and we will be going on another one tonight. Honestly at this point every week is a blur so it is hard to remember everything that happened. 

1) We had new missionary training which was super cool. I feel like all of the new missioanries are my little children because we pick them up when they first get her, train them, and then send them off with their trainers. I love seeing the progress they make and how they are growing. It is probably how our Heavenly Father feels towards us a lot. I had this thought that was super powerful to me. I thought about what our Heavenly Father might have said right before we left to come into mortality and I imagine he would have wanted us to remember who we are, what our purpose was, and that he was there to help us along the way.  

Elder Mills

2) The other cool experience I had was on the way back from one of our exchanges I had a clear thought of a member and then I had the thought to go a street above there. So we acted on it the next day and we were out tracting and some drove by and called us to come over. He was a recent convert from Mississippi who had moved and didn't know where the church was. He had fell back into some past sin and he wanted help from us. It was one of those circumstances where when you pray for help in the Lords work he will give us the inspiration to achieve it. 

Elder Ferrell, Elder Mills, Elder Larson

Here is a quote from Henry B. Eyring's talk: "Brothers and sisters, the Lord has opportunities near you to feel and to share His love. You can pray with confidence for the Lord to lead you to love someone for Him. He answers the prayers of meek volunteers like you. You will feel the love of God for you and for the person you serve for Him. As you help children of God in their troubles, your own troubles will seem lighter. Your faith and your hope will be strengthened"

I know that I have come to know Him better by serving Him and my love for Him has increased. I hope you all take the opportunity to pray and seek for people to lift so you can feel of the love God has for you. Have a great week!

The Shanty

This week we had zone conference which took up most of our week. We had 3 of them so we were traveling around the mission. We talked about having hope and gratitude. Something that really stood out to me this week was hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fufill his promises (from PMG). I love that the Book of Mormon's purpose is to 1) convince that Jesus is the Christ and 2) tell of the covenants that God has made with his people that are possible because of Jesus Christ. When we learn of the promises of God it brings us hope!

On Wednesday we stayed in Vidor in the "Shanty". It is this super small building on President Ross's compound that the Zone Leaders live on. At night it got like 32 degrees since the heater wasn't on so we woke up freezing. So the next couple of days I was sick. Then I went on an exchange with Elder Ferrell who is the Lake Houston ZL. He is one of my best friends on the mission. I love him so much. We were out in our area without a car (since Elder Mills and his companion took it) and we were told we were going to get picked up at 6:00 PM. We were both kind of counting down the time since we were walking around and we both were sick. Well 8:00 came around and we still hadn't heard from them so it was like an episode of survivor haha. Eventually they made it back and they had talked with this man who had investigated with the church for a couple of years but still hasn't joined. It is kind of a long story. 

This week will be a good one. We have 2 exchanges planned and we are going to start some transfer planning for the next couple of transfers. We have a general authority that is going to tour our mission after transfers so the next couple of weeks are going to be a blur. I love serving the Savior because that is how we come to know him! Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Cameron Larson

Grip it and Rip it

Hey friends and family! Merry Christmas and Happy New year! Sorry I didn’t write last week.  It was so good to be able to talk with my family and I love them so much! Thank you to everyone who sent me something or wished me a Merry Christmas! I really appreciate it!

These weeks have been pretty crazy because Sister Hewlett’s father passed away so she went home. It also happened to be the same week that we had Christmas Zone Conference so we were just trying to survive without her. It was like when your mom goes out of town for the weekend so you get takeout every day and you are just trying to keep things from setting on fire. But she is doing really well and had a great time with her family. 

For Christmas we were able to spend time with President Hewlett and his family that came into town. We had dinner and played a ton of ping pong. I even bought a new paddle from Academy so I'm in it to win it. 

Here are some cool experiences from the past week:

1) I was on exchanges with Elder Slade who I trained last year. That was sweet in itself. When we were planning for they day Elder Mills told us that he had a dream about where we could find someone to teach. He told us to go to this members home and to start knocking to the right. So, for our morning time we did exactly that. On the 3rd house there was a man that opened the door and everything seemed really normal but he actually let us inside his home! We taught him about the restoration and the spirit was really strong. He had just gone through a divorce and was wondering what his purpose was. We gave him a Book of Mormon but we haven't been able to seen him since. 

2) We were teaching a recent convert named Victoria about the temple and her less active son named Benji was able to join us. He had gotten baptized about 8 years ago and he didn't know what the temple was. We were able to teach him about covenants and the work that happens in the temple. The spirit was super strong and he really felt it and has a desire to come back to church and renew his covenants he made at baptism. 

The reason for my title is because in our mission we are now all weekend warriors. We decided as a mission to make the missionaries park their car on Saturdays so they can spend more time out and about with the people. I started to call it, "grip it and rip it Saturday" so now that is what almost our whole mission calls it haha! 

Other than that things are still going really well here. Elder Mills & I are busy and we see miracles every single day. I have been writing all of the miracles in my journal and I just don't have time to tell all of them. I was reading a talk this week by President Eyring called, "Remembrance & Gratitude" (and pretty much all of his talks, he is the best). When we take time at the end of our day to reflect on how God has blessed us that day the Holy Ghost will remind us of times that we saw the hand of the Lord. I know that as I have seen these miracles on my mission it has shown me that God lives and he is watching over us. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve him and come to know our Savior :) 

Scripture for the week:

Mosiah 5:13

Elder Cameron Larson 

The big dictionary we have

The Christmas Eve packages we spent 9 hours delivering

New paddle, who dis

Christmas Conference

Photo Cred: President Hewlett

Addie Hewlett's Birthday