Speed walking for the Lord.

Hello!

 

Well we had a really great week again! We saw so many miracles! First off, we got our transfer calls, and Elder Bate and I will be staying here! We are so excited! And this transfer will be a 5 week transfer, due to Pres. Castro ending his mission nearing the end of June. It's crazy how fast time goes by! I'm definitely going to miss Pres. Castro. I look up to him so much as a truly inspired man of God. I will miss him, but I'm sure that Pres. Felix will be great as well (:

 

So! whew. Where to start?!?! Well on Monday we saw a pretty awesome miracle! So remember a couple weeks ago how I talked about that girl named Tori? Well we went by to see her Monday evening and talked with her for a while on her porch. We were having a great conversation about  some scriptures in Alma 32 about faith, and as we were talking, her sister and her friend who is a returned missionary pulled up in the driveway after this returned missionary member yelled out "She wants to be baptized!!!!!!!!" Hahahaha they came up and we all went inside the house. I guess Tori's older sister, Megan, really wanted to read the Book of Mormon and so we gave both of them a copy. We are going to be helping their family move in the beginning of June and we are excited!

 

Hmmm.... Tuesday was great! In church a week ago a member brought one of her non member friends named Allie, and was like, "Hey Elders can you teach us the lessons?" YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's true member missionary work! Ha so the member is preparing to go on a mission and her friend was just I guess tagging along. But even that is perfect, because the spirit will have a chance to touch her heart. So we taught both of them on Tuesday and we talked about the Restoration and it was a really good lesson! We have another appointment with them this coming Tuesday.

 

On Thursday we were working in a neighborhood, and we saw this guy walking down the street, like walking for exercise status, so he was moving pretty quick. So we tried giving him a card, and he was like, "religion? No. But if you want to try to commit me, you can walk with me at my pace, if you can keep up." At that moment, I was just like, yeah we'll talk with him for a little bit... Nope. We walked like 1 &1/2 - 2 miles with this guy! And it was like 96 degrees or something like that.... So we walked with him for a while and had a conversation with him about faith. He said he doesn't have any faith, but I think Elder Bate and I gave him some things to ponder about in life. He definitely seemed to be a little bit more respectful towards us after we walked all that way with him. So we were then by his car, which was, however, now just that far back to our car...... poooooop. So we started walking back and saw a Wendy's so we thought we'd go in and get a water cup, so we did. And after we were done drinking our water, Elder Bate went to go get a refill, and a lady stopped him and was like, "Can I bless you??" Haha he didn't know what she meant by that at first, but I guess she just meant buying us a meal. She continued to say how she was a Christian and how she saw a light in our eyes as we walked into the restaurant and wanted to buy us some food and a nice drink because it was so hot. so that was awesome! I have truly come to find that most people here aren't as bitter and rude as you'd think. Most people are genuinely nice and will at least have a pretty good conversation with you (: haha.

 

Lets see....... Those were the main things that happened this week. I wish I had time to write more! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers (: I can feel them each and every day. I love and miss you lots! You are always in my prayers! Have a great week (:

 

Elder Teeples

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Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mother's day again! :D

 

I wish I would have had more time on the phone! My mission truly has taught me just how much you do for me, and the rest of the kids. And honestly, I can't thank you enough! I can't remember if I told you or not, but while I was in the MTC there were multiple times where I needed a little extra money, needed to ask you a question, etc... and I would reach for my phone to call you, only to find that my phone wasn't there (: haha. And this past week during our leadership meeting we had a small "get to know you" activity, and due to mothers day coming up, the question was "how has your mother influenced your life?" ..... that's an intense question! So many Elders and Sisters stood up and said, "my mother is really patient, and taught me patience." "My mom is really proactive, so she taught me to keep busy." And on and on. But with you, I couldn't just narrow it down to one thing. I went through chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel while I was awaiting my turn, and went through all the Christlike attributes, faith, hope, charity, diligence, patience, obedience, humility, etc. and realized that you exemplified each characteristic, and at that moment I realized just how Christlike you truly were. So needless to say, I bragged about you to 30 other missionaries or so just how great you are (: That it wasn't just one way that you influenced my life, but that you truly were the most Christlike person I know in my life, and how you have set an amazing example for me to follow. I was going to tell you that over the phone, but I didn't want to "crunch" it in at the end. I love you mom (:

 

We had a great week this week! We saw so many miracles along with the rest of the zone! 5 out of the 10 companionships in our zone taught 25 or more lessons! We truly have been blessed! We had a great zone meeting where we extended a committment to the missionaries in the zone to teach at least 25 lessons this week, and to teach 40 lessons next week. We are so excited! One companionship went above and beyond and they went for 40 this week, and ended up teaching 41 altogether. Miracles happen (: We just need faith!

I got to go on a mini-exchange for an hour with Elder Navarrete this week. It's so amazing to see just how much he has grown since I had been with him! And It's great having him around!

We had a great lesson with our investigator Scott Neeley on Monday about prayer. He came to the ward's family home evening and he had a fun time, as we had a nacho making contest (: We had our lesson afterwards along with a couple members from the ward, and it was a very powerful lesson about prayer and how we can use it to get through trials. He shared some of his experiences with prayer and we promised him that he could have those same types of experiences as he prays about the Book of Mormon.

We taught our recent convert Desiree Rodriguez the Restoration this week for her new member lessons. It was another really powerful lesson and we feel she benefitted a lot from it! She really is such a blessing in our lives!

We also taught our investigator Brandon Dawkins. Unfortunately he is leaving in a few weeks to go away to college in Arizona. We are going to try to get his information sometime soon to send the referral over to Arizona. He is a really good kid and he would be a great addition to the church.

We had  a great lesson with one of our investigator, Jose's, sister, Erica. (My grammar has taken a nose dive, hasn't it? oh well (: ) She is really open to learning and we talked to her a lot about prayer and committed her to pray every night before she goes to bed. We followed up with her the next day and she said she had a great experience with it. She said she also prayed that morning and that she felt a lot more calm throughout the day! It's so amazing to see the Gospel take effect in other people's lives! I love being a missionary!

I had the privilege of interviewing an investigator being taught by Elder Atkin and Elder Fridal for baptism this week. It was a great experience! She is ready to be baptized and that baptism will be taking place this Saturday at 4. We are excited for them! During the interview she was telling me about her life experiences, and it reminded me of Hymn 270, I'll go where you want me to, so I sang it to her before we started the actual interview, and it turns out that song is actually on her baptismal service program. So that was

In my studies I learned a lot about humility, and how the scriptures are her to bring us reproof. I saw evidence of that this morning as I read from the scriptures and I am excited to apply what I learned! I love the reproof I get from the scriptures and I love seeking for ways to improve! The scriptures are such a blessing in my life and I love learning about my savior Jesus Christ!

Well, again it was good hearing from you yesterday! I love and miss you so much! I will keep the family in my prayers, especially dad in his this trying time and Jax with his stomach problems. Have a great week (:

 

Elder Teeples!

Heavenly Father's timing is perfect.

Hello! (:

This week we saw so many miracles! I am amazed at how many miracles we saw this week! It is so amazing what miracles can come about from just simply talking to everyone we possibly can! Elder Bate and I had a goal this week of teaching 40 lessons all together, and we did it! Last night, the evening was coming to a close and we were at a total of 39 lessons, and I feel like we truly endured to the end, and acted in faith by searching for somebody to teach for the last minutes of our week. Gratefully, we had the opportunity to teach a lesson to a guy named Martin who didn't speak much english. But we did it! We met that goal and we are very humbled and excited to work even harder this week. Being companions with Elder Bate truly has been a blessing! It is great to have a support like him and to have a companion who is willing to work as hard as he does.

We are finding that there are certain "hot spots" to contact people. It's great (: we are working hard and enjoying our time here. We have a return appointment today with all the YSA people I told you about last week. We are excited! In total, we have given 5 of them copies of the Book of Mormon and we are eager to hear their thoughts about it!

We were able to teach our investigator Jose that we found about a month ago, and his 16 year old sister Ericka. We had a good lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and committed both of them to read it. They are both really open and willing to learn! It is great (:

We also had a great miracle this past week with a YSA aged girl named Tori! Last week I had a solid prompting to knock on a door as we were walking past it, so we did, and Tori answered the door and let us know that she was planning her grandfather's funeral with her family. We expressed sympathy, but she had a positive attitude about it, and we got to share a little bit of the Plan of Salvation with her. Then this week, we went by to see if she had read the pamphlet we left with her... nobody answered. ): So we just worked around her neighborhood for a time, and when we were walking back to our car to go to a different area she came out of her house and was heading to her car. So we got to talk to her! It's so amazing to see how Heavenly Father orchestrates things like that to wear we cross paths just at the right moment! Because seriously, any other 20 second gap we would have chosen to walk back to our car would have been the wrong one, and we would have missed her! We greeted her, and had a powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon, and she accepted one and said she'd read and pray about it. We have yet to follow up with her, but we are excited!

Here is another cool expreince. we were on exchanges this past saturday, and Elder Atkin, the Elder I was with is having a baptism in a few weeks. So we were on our exchange, and we went down by the beach area (cause there is always people there) to talk to people, and we started talking to this one lady, and it turns out that she knew his investigator who was getting baptized! She received an invitation to her baptism and was planning on going! Again, its' amazing how Heavenly Father plans things out like that with perfect timing!

I am low on time, but I am excited to talk to you next week! Thank you for all your love and support! I'm glad you passed shcool with flying colors (: I hope your knee is getting better! I love and miss you! Have a wonderful week, and I'll be looking forward to the letters from the kids! See ya!

Elder Teeples (:

A week of blessings and miracles.

Hello! (:

This week was amazing! Miracles happened! At the mission conference last week Elder Bowen talked a lot about having false limitations. He asked what is the highest number of lessons taught in a week was for anybody in the room and it came to be like 20 or 25. Then he told us that we could be and should be teaching 40-50! We took Elder Bowen's remarks to heart and we "jumped out of the bucket" this week. Last Monday we set a goal to teach at least 30 lessons over all that week. Needless to say, it was challenging, but we taught a woppin' 35 lessons this week! We kept sooo busy! And not only that but we got 53 declarations (declaring a restored truth to somebody) and the usual standard is like 20 for the week. We committed to the Lord and he blessed us with so many opportunities to share the gospel. We were constantly busy in finding activities and in teaching people everywhere we went! So if you pray for opportunities the Lord will bless us with them (: I definitely know that to be true! One of them was on Tuesday. We were walking down the street and we got chased down by a YSA aged man named Adrian and he asked what we were doing, and we told him how we were missionaries and he thought that was great. He told us a little bit about he is selling a product and asked if we'd listen to him and his buddies about his product, which happened to be a natural energy drink called Verve. We told him that we'd listen to him if he'd listen to us, and he was willing to comply with that. (: haha So we went into a home where there were about 10 YSA aged people, and they were all super friendly. One of them, named Matt, knew a lot about our church and grew up living next to some members, and he respected us for what we do. Long story short, we ended up teaching a lot of the people there, and a few of them were interested in learning more, and asked for copies of the Book of Mormon. Needless to say it was a true miracle, and we have an appointment with them tomorrow.

We had a great lesson last night with our investigator Rachel! We went over the restoration with her and she had a lot of really good questions on our beliefs and about the priesthood. It was really good, and I feel like we did a good job at testifying of the truths that we know.

We also got to teach our investigator Bill. We read over the introduction to the Book of Mormon with him and that went really well. He also had some really good questions regarding our belief in the Godhead. We were able to sing for him after the lesson was over, and I got to play the guitar! We sang I am a Child of God, right in the middle of the university campus in our stake. It was awesome (: That truly is a powerful tool that we have, is singing!

I wish I had more time to talk about all the miracles we had this week! I have an even stronger testimony now that God truly does love us and he cares about us, and He is willing to grant us anything that we ask of Him in prayer, if it be His will! We were so blessed this week with opportunities to share the Gospel, and we are planning on working even harder this week! thank you for all your love, support and prayers! You are in mine constantly (: can't wait to talk to ya on Mother's Day! Love and miss you! Have a great week!

Elder Teeples (:

We went into a member's real estate office to grab a gift from her to us, and the receptionist was a member as well, and asked our names, and when she heard my name, she was like "What?! I'm a Teeples!" Apparently, her ancestor is George Bentley Jr. who was brothers to Henry A. Teeples. So I pulled out a copy of one of dad's emails to me, about our heritage with the church, and she took a copy of it. She said she was going to email you to talk a little bit more about that but that was an awesome experience for the week (:

Spiritually fed by an apostle..Love Elder Nelson!

Hola!

 

Wow, what a week! I learned so much on how to be a better missionary! This week was just full of constant reminders and invitations to be exactly obedient and I personally have risen to a new sense of commitment. To top off last week with hearing from Elder Nelson was just phenomenal! I know even more so now that he is an apostle of the Lord. Such an amazing meeting! and his sense of humor is awesome! I love it! He has always been one of my favorite apostles.

 

We had a couple miracles this week. That's great that you have seen the video "Because of Him"  It's really so good! and we have enjoyed using the "Because of Him" video as a tool for our work.  We told everybody about it this week! It is so short but yet so powerful (: Share it with everybody you know!

 

We met an elderly lady named Martha while tracting. She was a born again Christian and she was bitter towards us at first, but one thing led to another, and we were able to read her a scripture from the Book of Mormon (out of Alma 40) and she felt the spirit very strongly and started to weep and pray to Heavenly Father. It was a really spiritual experience! She said she wouldn't mind missionaries coming by in the future. The Book of Mormon is so powerful like that and it carries the spirit so easily! 

 

We had a great lesson with our investigator Nichole. She had a lot of questions that have arisen from conversations with her friends from other churches, and we were able to answer most of her questions. We found from her questions that she really is searching for the truth. It is so great to see!

 

After the mission conference on Saturday, we visited a less active named Ivy, and it was so cool, we brought the spirit from the conference straight with us into the lesson. It took a lot of persistence, but she committed to come to church, and she came yesterday! Ahh A true miracle! Last night we were able to find a couple YSA people named Miguel and Melissa, and we had a brief lesson with them about God's love for us and the Book of Mormon. She seemed really sincere about reading the Book of Mormon and we are excited to follow up with them on that. Something I find I am often writing in my journal at the end of each entry is "There are prepared people everywhere!" and it definitely applies this week!

Elder Bate is a very good companion. He is so good at teaching with power and authority and I have learned from him a lot in that aspect. He seems to be very humble and willing to submit to whatever the Lord wants him to do. We have both set a goal for this week to teach at least 30 lessons total this week.

In my studies this week I studied a lot of Elder Nelson's talks in preparation for the meeting. One on the lessons we can learn from the Lord's prayers, the 3 that you sent out to us and a couple other ones. I always love his enthusiasm in his talks! I especially enjoyed his talk just a couple weeks ago. He sets a great example of letting your faith show, and his talk was simple and easy to understand. I also studied shortly the talk by Bishop Stevenson about our "4 minutes" that was a wonderful talk as well. So powerful.  We can really relate the 4 minutes to our missions. I wish I had more time to include some notes from the conference!

 

But anyways it was a wonderful week (: Thank you so much for all your love and support and I hope all is well at home! You are in my thoughts and prayers! Love and miss you very much!

 

Love,

Elder Teeples (:

Elder Bate is Great. He's a worker!

Hello!! (:

This week was pretty good, and we have a reeeeeallllly busy week this week! Things with Elder Bate are going well. (: He is from Ogden, UT. He definitely has a desire to work. On our way back from Ventura on Tuesday we stopped at In'n'out for lunch. Elder Bate just started conversations with everybody he could, which is something I am not used to doing... I usually just keep to myself in public places like that. We both started talking to this girl named Angel, and it turns out that she hasn't been to church for a while because the church she goes to is down in LA where she's from. So we asked if she would be interested in hearing more about our church and she said she would like that, so we got her number and everything (: That taught me a lesson that day to just talk with anybody you possibly can! I got to see Leroy at the transfer meeting last week which was awesome! It was so good to see him!

But yeah, this week we have our mission leadership council meeting which will be all day on Tuesday, then this Saturday is our visit from Elder Nelson! I'm so excited! We rarely, if ever, have mission conferences in which the whole mission is in attendance, so this is a pretty good treat (: Haha. I'm not sure if we all get to meet him or not, but I sure hope so! that would be amazing!

Jose had something come up the day our lesson was scheduled... unfortunately. But its alright we are going to see if we can set something up for this week!

A lot of this week was spent coming up with some goals that we want to present to the zone. We have thought a lot about focusing on the Book of Mormon and placing a certain amount of them per week? Ha we still aren't totally sure. But we are excited (:

We did however teach a few lessons this week. One of them was with a potential investigator named Bill. We met with him along with a member and it was a really good lesson. We used lots of scriptures and such. Near the end of the lesson, his friend Bob came and joined us. So we got 2 new investigators that day, Bill and Bob (: Hahah we got a laugh out of that. We also taught a less active girl named Ivy. She is the only member of her family, and It was a great lesson with her! We just talked about the importance of scripture study, prayer and, of course, coming to church (: Ha. She is really cool though. Then her mom made us amazing casadillas! She is learning to speak English and is surprisingly good. She was so kind! One of the nicest ladies I have met! She prayed for us so sincerely before we left and I felt the love of Christ flowing from her. It was great (: Last night we had a couple really cool miracles. The night was coming to a close as we were walking around an apartment complex and we came across a man named JR. He was just outside and told us how he has a strong faith in God. He told us how he had talked with missionaries before, But not too in depth. He has really been prepared by the Lord! We were somehow talking about Adam and Eve, and he said something along the lines of "God knew that Eve was going to eat the fruit! It wasn't like He wasn't expecting it. He knew the fall of Adam was going to happen." Then we asked him what he thought the purpose of life was, and he was like "bro, we are here to experience good and evil. God wanted us to experience both so we could choose for ourselves and have faith in him." Needless to say, I was just waitng for him to bust up laughing and admit to being a member of the church... but this was not the case. Ha so we passed him on to the Elders who would be teaching him (: There are prepared people everywhere!

Yesterday there was a fire of something along the main road to get to the church building.... and we had a couple investigators who were really planning on coming to church, but they never showed up.... So we are guessing that the road blockage prevented them from coming :/ darn adversary. He truly does anything he can to prevent people from coming to church! AHHH!

But yeah it was a good week. Thank you for all your love and support (: I hope all is going well at home! (: I hope you are doing well with your schooling! Have a wonderful week! Love and miss ya!

Elder Teeples

The district!

Conference was so great! Transfers again....losing Elder Robinson....Dang!

Hello!

General Conference was soooooooooo good! Ahhh! It was just what I needed (: I have been starting to get overwhelmed with all the busy stuff we have to do, and that spiritual boost was just what I needed! I loved Elder Holland's testimony "I'm more sure that Jesus Christ lives...than I'm sure I stand before you today" Sooooooo powerful! I loved it! I really liked Elder Bednars talk as well about how our trials and hardships are what give us the strength to endure life. Amazing! Desiree came to all 4 sessions of general conference. We watched it at our stake center. On saturday she made Elder Robison and I sandwiches and on Sunday she made spaghetti for all the missionaries that watched it at that building and we all had lunch together! She really is so great. She loves serving and really has a testimony of this Gospel. She has been such a blessing and example in my life! For the priesthood session there were some technical difficulties.... So randomly in the middle of talks, it would switch to Spanish.... So we missed most of Elder Oaks talk and random bits of other ones but its alright (:

Not an awful lot happened this week. We got our transfer calls!!! I will be staying and Elder Robison is leaving me, sadly #heartbroken): He is going to Thousand Oaks to be a zone leader over there, and my new companion will be coming from Thousand Oaks. His name is Elder Bate! I have met him at meetings so I know who he is and everthing (: He should be a great companion!

 

We found a new investigator this week! It was kinda cool, it was like 8:15 pm and we didn't know what to do, so we went to this one apartment complex to knock on a couple doors. We just started walking through the complex and walked into a random building, and went upstairs and knocked on random door, and it was this 18 year old named Jose. He was super nice! He said he is really open to anything, and he told us about how he is in a mariachi band with his dad, and he was the drummer. We have an appointment with him this week. He is way cool and we are excited to see where it goes with him!

Yeah other than that nothing really happened. I am excited for this next transfer! Thank you for all your love and support (: I am going to write everybody letters today and send them off soon. I hope all is going well! I stole a quote that Heather sent in one of her emails and it goes right along with Elder Bednar's talk. "A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships." I love it because it is so true! I love my Savior and I love this Gospel! Have a great week (:

Elder Teeples!