Elder Hess & Elder Younger

Temple Doors

Temple Entrance

Selfie at the Temple

Study Area

Dove Canyon Golf Course

Hey Everyone!

So this week was pretty good considering!!

We had a huge zone conference on Thursday which was super good pretty much just president throwing down on missionaries getting offended all the time and retarded stuff like that which he doesn't care about!

Lately Salt Lake has been giving president crap for not baptizing a lot and compared it to the Provo mission and how they baptize close to 4000 where we are like 200... but let's go over statistics.

So our mission has about 160 missionaries for about 10000 active members.  Provo has 400+ missionaries for about 116,000 or so give or take... which means every missionary in our mission gets about 25 members to work with where as Provo has about 150-200  members to every one missionary so that's pretty nuts.  So we have 6 stakes in our mission where Provo has somewhere around 165 stakes.   Provo averages 14 baptisms per stake a year and our mission averages 33 baptisms a year per stake.  So I think we are doing pretty well considering we're top 5 of the wealthiest missions in the world!!

Other than that our phone died completely the same day wouldn't hold a battery charge or anything so we were without a phone so we couldn't confirm dinner or anything like that so during the conference we got chastised hard core by our dinner coordinator and our WML who threatened to cancel dinner if we didn't call him back within 15 min... like yo I'm not your 6 year old kid alright!!

But... it's all good cause when we're face to face they love us! It's the greatest thing! :)

So needless to say our ward is bi-polar... one day they love us the next day they hate us haha but it's all good cause I'm not doing their work ya know! It's the Lord's work and I feel like he's pretty happy with us so its all good!! :) Just gotta keep smiling! Fake it till ya make it!!

That's pretty much my week tho!!

Scripture!

Philippians 3:8

8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Love you all!!

Elder Hess

Zone Conference

New Suit!

Basketball on the Beach!

Hey Everyone!!

So yesterday was like the best P-Day ever!! We went and played ball on main beach in Laguna Beach! It was so sick! I got a pretty good sunburn but it was totally worth it! Then after that we went to the church and played some more so it was just a day full of basketball!! Cant beat that!

So this week has been pretty eventful/uneventful! I got the flu this week so a lot of the time it was just chill and very slow but we got sick of trying to get better so we went and just started working which was very draining...but rewarding!

We weren't able to teach Sister Venable (our less active) because she got pretty sick so that was a bummer but she did come to church which really made the whole week really good!

We also had the opportunity to meet with President for about an hour to discuss some situations that have been going down so that was interesting!

So last Sunday I get up and in my talk I say how I've been lucky not to have to give a talk my whole mission until today and afterwards bishop comes up to me and says we will have to give you more talks before you leave to make up for the last year and a half haha!  So next week I didn't have to give a talk but I had to give the prayer haha what the heck right!! Haha... but it's all good!!

That's pretty much it for this week!! love you all!!

Scripture!

Alma 32 42-43

 42 And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.

 43 Then, my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you.

Elder Hess

"Your sweet sons came to dinner tonight; we love them!  Brother and Sister Klein

It Happens!

Hey Everyone!

So this week was pretty wild!! Not a whole lot happened but it's all good!

So this week I gotta go on an exchange with an Elder who struggles!  That was fun babysitting him! Him and his companion just hate each other and get after it all the time.  It's pretty annoying but IT HAPPENS!   During that exchange we did 6 hours of service in the canyon for a dare care center that looks like they probably beat the kids at.. no joke!  It was sketchy but it was good!  I guess if you like to run the risk of your kid getting bit by a rattlesnake or attacked by a mountain lion you should be fine! We also gotta teach some less active lessons and give a blessing so that was good too!

Later that night (Saturday) we exchanged back to regular comps and I found out I was giving a talk the next day in church!! I DIDNT SAY YES TO THAT!!! but IT HAPPENS! We didn't have a specific topic.  We just had to use a scripture in the New Testament... so I went with my go to of Matt 16:24-25 and it went well just winged a talk for like 7-8 min when it was only supposed to be a 5 min talk so I was proud of that!!!

So over all the week was a pretty good one!!  I did some service, taught less actives, found out an elder has same gender attractions, played some ball, taught some investigators, played some more ball... can't beat that right!!

Scripture

2 Nephi 26:30

30 Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish.

Love you all!!

Elder Hess

Hey Everyone!!

So this week was kinda a slow week not a whole lot went down as far as finding anyone new or anything like that but there was still a couple things that went down that was really effective and a miracle I will share in this letter.

So we have been working a lot lately with the bishop trying to get on his good side and what not.  So we are doing "the gift of family history" project cause he's old and we know all the old people like doing family history so he loves us cause we're "taking interest" haha!  No it's not that bad!.. but because he now trusts us he took us to his non-member neighbor who now lets us do service and stuff for her so it's pretty awesome.

So we have these super sick members in our ward who actually live outside the mission in Riverside country!! Like literally in the middle of no where in the mountains that takes 1 hour to get there by truck haha!  It's pretty sick!! We got to go to dinner there and we share the ward with other elders and they ruined the trust completely cause they were acting like children!! But... it's all good!  That was cool!

So we have another member in our ward named Brother Hobbins! and he goes hard in the paint he is such a good missionary!! and he's a golfer who has a membership to dove canyon golf club!! So what do I do??  Get the hook ups!! haha   So we made a deal that if we teach 21 lessons total this week he will take me golfing with a nonmember so this week is gonna be crazy!!! haha but that's not the important part!! 

Now time for the miracle!! AHH YAAA!! So we're working with this less active member Sister Venable and we were having an amazing rib dinner like fall off the bone status! Sooo goood!! After dinner we got to the lesson and she opened up and told us like all her problems that she has relating to the gospel. So Elder Younger and I decided to just try to answer all the questions she had just off of our own knowledge!! We failed miserably. Well we did not fail she just wasn't getting it all.  So we decided to flip to the word of God and read straight out of the Book of Mormon! Right when we did that and started reading out of 2 Nephi 2...everything made total sense!! So that was pretty sick and now she is making a come back to the gospel so that's exciting!! 

Other then that nothing else is going down its pretty lame!! but its all good!! 

Scripture!! 

ALMA 31:5

 5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

Love you all!! 

Elder Hess