One Year Older

June 27, 2016

Hi everyone!

A lot has happened since I wrote last! I guess I'll just start at the beginning. Firstly, transfers happened. On Monday, Elder Burt and I picked up Elder Carmon, another missionary going home, who would be staying with us for his last couple days. Tuesday, Elder Fairbanks, my new companion came into the area, and at 12 we dropped Elder Burt and Elder Carmon off for their "going home" meetings and what not. We ran a few errands that day, and taught a lesson to Reagan and then picked

Elder Burt and Elder Carmon up for their last night. Wednesday morning, they left for home, and Elder Fairbanks and I started working. And we've had a pretty terrific week. We taught a lot of lessons, and we picked up two new investigators, and have a couple good potentials for this week if it works out. District Meeting was good. We for the most part just did introductions and set goals and

expectations as a district. I'm pretty excited for this transfer. The district seems really motivated.

Our new investigators are Ann in the 4th Ward and Ryan in the 13th Ward. That's exciting because up until now, those wards have been some of the least productive. Ann is older, and super nice. She actually reminds me of a combination of both my grandmas. Her husband recently died, and she's very interested in the church. Ryan is in his 30s, and comes from a hard background, and he might take a little bit more work, but he's really interested and has real intent. He came to church and also stayed for Gospel Principles.

And Reagan is still progressing. And we've finally started the new member discussions with Mona, and we're re-teaching the kids so they can get baptized (if Mona can get full custody of the kids or if the Mission President says it's ok).

Yesterday was a really good day. It also happened to be my birthday! Yep, my mission aged me another year. I'm 20 now; officially not a teenager! That just seems weird. I still kinda feel 18, and I'm not really sure what happened or how these last two years went by so quickly. Anyway, I had a fantastic day yesterday. We went to sacrament meeting in one of my favorite wards, and then had a sort of impromptu lesson with Reagan. Then we spoke in another ward, which went very well. After that we took Reagan and Greg to the Temple Visitor Center, and had some of the sisters do the VC tour. That was really good. And TJ came along too so there was even some member support. The temple is definitely a goal for Greg and Reagan. I just hope this whole parole thing can get cleared up ASAP because Reagan is so ready for baptism. She's more than ready! Anyway, after that, we had a little bit of time to chill at our apartment and get out of the heat (which felt even worse because we were in suits today). Then we had dinner with Brandon and TJ who put something together specifically for my birthday. They made homemade carne asada and Mexican rice. It was really good. We have some really awesome bets in this area, and I'm very blessed to have them as friends. I didn't ask them to do anything. They both just volunteered. Anyway, after that we went to a recent convert fireside, a meeting for missionaries, recent converts, and investigators, where the recent converts can get up and share their story and their testimony. They're really cool meetings. Anyway, this was President and Sister Center's last one. It was a good meeting, even though our recent converts who were going to speak weren't able to due to circumstances beyond their control. And I got to say goodbye (though not a permanent goodbye) to President and Sister Center. It was good, and I got one last picture with them, and I got them to write a couple little messages in my missionary handbook. I'm going to miss them a lot. They really are fantastic. Anyway, it was just a really good day,

and the crown jewel of a really good week.

So yeah. A lot's happened. The Centers leave to go home back to Ohio today, and today the new mission president, President Smith comes in. I'm sure I'll like him, and I've heard he's super cool. But it will take some getting used to. And I'll still always miss the Centers.

Well in other news, I got a new hat that looks pretty great (the church says missionaries can wear hats now), there's a massive forest fire on the other side of the mountain, and Elder Fairbanks kinda mashed part of the car trying to turn around a pole. But all these things require pictures to really be appreciated. Luckily, I have pictures, which I'll be sending shortly.

Thank you to all who sent letters/emails wishing happy birthday! I really appreciate it. It was a happy day, and not just for me, but for missionary work. And honestly, I can't imagine a better way to spend

my birthday than being in the Lord's service, especially with how productive and uplifting the day was. Anyway, thanks for the birthday wishes! I miss you all!

-Elder Oswald

Picture 1: My new hat

Picture 2: when trying to turn into a parking spot next to some covered parking spaces (not really sure what those are called, but hopefully you know what I'm talking about) and we didn't quite make it
around the pole. To make it funnier, this was Elder Fairbanks's first day in the area.

Picture 3: that kinda looks like a volcano erupting, but it isn't. There haven't been active volcanoes in St. George for several million years. That's smoke from a forest fire on the other side of the mountain.

Picture 4: Elder Montoya impaling me at the Transfer Van on Tuesday.

Picture 5 and 6: Walking around the Temple we saw a bunch of Hawks just chilling on the temple grounds. There were probably 7 or more of them. These are two of them that I got fairly good pictures of. The second one was totally posing for the camera, too.

Picture 7: One last picture with President and Sister Center. They're awesome! I'm going to miss them a lot!