What a week this week was! It was such a great week! We counted up how many hours we actually proselyted in our area and it was only 20 hours. We had a pretty busy week, I guess you could say, with other things.
Monday night to Tuesday night we went on exchanges with our district leaders. I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Wade. He is the missionary I have been on the most exchanges with my whole mission. He is from Idaho and I am looking forward to hanging out with him after the mission. From Tuesday night to Wednesday night I got to go on exchanges with my boy, Elder Miller, in our area! Talk about a good time together! The boys are back in town. It was so great just being with him and catching up on old times. We got a few laughs from the things we did before the mission! Man do I love Elder Miller! He is a character. It was a ton of fun getting back together.
On Wednesday we had a leadership meeting. It was awesome! The first thing we were able to do was watch the new Christmas initiative video. It was a great video and I am excited to be able to share it when it comes out. Nope, not saying anything else about it or giving you any hints. You are just going to have to wait and see! We also talked about teaching the youth. We have been encouraged to teach the youth again. The youth are the future leaders of the church. He also encouraged us to help them use social media to spread the gospel. The funniest part was at the end when President Palmer got up and said, “Maybe some of you might be future leaders of the church. Maybe even Elder Pope or Elder Sitani.” We all started laughing a little bit and then he said, “I am not prophesying though.” Haha! It was super funny that he called us out. We both got a lot of crap for it after. You better believe I would go by Elder N. Karl Pope! I love President Palmer so much and am grateful for the wonderful and loving example he sets. When I think of someone living like the Savior I think of President and Sister Palmer. They are both truly amazing!
Thursday we had District Meeting and that was pretty good. We talked and counseled about how we can become better companions. We also talked about how we can work with our companions in unity. I know that is something Elder Silva and I are great at–working together in unity. On Friday we had President’s interviews for most of the day. We were at the church the whole time directing missionaries where to go and all that fun jazz. In the interviews we talked about spiritual gifts that we are working on. We all have spiritual gifts that we need to work on and make them strengths! It makes me think of what we heard yesterday in church. One of the speakers talked about getting patriarchal blessings. If you haven’t yet received your patriarchal blessing you should pray about it. I love reading my patriarchal blessing and the things that I am able to learn from it.
If you haven’t heard, there is a crazy fire a little way away from here. We have a couple of members in our ward who are paramedics up helping out. The Central Valley is pretty smokey right now so that is pretty fun! They are also shaking the almond and walnut trees right now so the dust just adds right to it. I didn’t have allergies but of course I do now. That is what the Central Valley will do to you!
The quote for today is from Neal A. Maxwell, “Daily HOPE is VITAL.” I know that if it weren’t for hope then I wouldn’t be here. I know that if it weren’t for hope then we would have no reason to be here on the earth. Hope is such a key word here. The definition of hope is a desire for a certain thing to happen. We need to continue to have hope every day in order to return to our Heavenly Father one day.
Love,
Elder Pope
This is Elder Sitani, my boy who President Palmer talked about!
This is my other boy, Elder Miller! I love this guy!
I found the plates everyone. They are true!
I think that Utah needs cooler names for the streets. I like these street names the best!