Lindsay, CJ

Hello everybody,  Hope this past week was a good one for you! I especially hope you all had a great Christmas! Things down here in Orem continue to go by very quickly, especially this past week.  The highlight of the week was, without a doubt, Christmas day. I opened presents along with my family over Facebook Messenger, had a quick, one-hour combined district council meeting, and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We were blessed enough to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the homes of two different families on Christmas, something that I was incredibly fortunate to have and grateful for. The Orem, Cherry Hill, and La Montaña Zones all took part in a special Christmas Zone Conference on Wednesday. It was a very spiritually uplifting morning, full of trainings and talks, followed by a fun afternoon of every district in the 3 zones performing during a talent show. While the fun and games were just that, the best part about this past week (this past month, really) has been t...

Hey all,  Hope you all had a great week! This update isn't going to be too long as the weeks continue to fly by down here, but it was a pretty enjoyable week down here in the UOM! Exciting news! It turns out that original January 6th date was only tentative, but I have OFFICIALLY been informed I will be leaving for Brazil on the 13th. This one's actually official (at least I think so). I wasn't too disappointed because I also found out this week the mission will be visited by a surprise member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on the 8th, so I won't end up having to miss that! Travel plans on the 6th would have been a great present, but this opportunity is even better! On Friday, we had the opportunity to go to the temple for the second time since I have been out in the field! It was, without a doubt, the most spiritual experience I have had in the temple so far in my life. And now that Elder Dallin Hoffman and I are in the same zone, we got to go together!  It has b...

How's it going everyone, Once again, another week that just seemed to fly by.  After doing P-Day activities as a district, which included an exciting day of ping-pong and McDonald's, Elder Sterling and I went over to share a Light the World Christmas message with a man named Soar. When we set up the message with him the week before, he was really kind to us and more than willing to meet, but he just seemed a little uneasy. We thought he might not actually want to meet but was just too nice to say no.  We knocked on his door last Monday and he was happy to see us! He let us in, had us sit down, and we started talking about mountain biking, backpacking (woohoo), and dogs. He stopped us and asked, "Can I just say something?" "Of course!" we both responded. "It's really weird that you guys knocked on my door when you did." He went on to tell us he had grown up a member of the Church, went on a mission, developed some bad habits afterward, and turne...

I've got some more BIG NEWS!!! My travel plans have come in! I am officially leaving the UOM for Brazil on my birthday: January 6th! Thank you for the thoughts, prayers, kind words, and all of the other support over the past few months! It was a pretty funny story how I found out my travel plans had finally come; we were driving around with the Zone Leaders after going on our weekly Wal-Mart trip to get our groceries and all that good stuff. Afterward, we all stopped by the mission office in Lindon so they could grab the mail and Christmas packages for the missionaries in our Zone.  Elder Sterling said,  "Didn't you need to talk to the travel office?" My reply, "Yeah, I think I'm going to talk to Sister Kasper about it." The ZLs, "Bro, I think we already saw your picture on the departing wall." Me, "Don't mess with me like that." ZLs, "No, I'm serious." Sure enough, I go inside and see my picture among those who will...