April 19th, 2010

So... not a whole lot happened this week, it was pretty slow... we had Zone Conference and that was really good.

We went to do some work in the small towns around our area, we have a bunch of towns with populations under 200 in our area... Archer, Newberry, and a bunch of others that are so small I don't even know their names... we are looking for more humble people and are not having a lot of luck so far...

Tomorrow I am going on a trade off with Huff and we are just going to spend the whole day tracting Newberry and hopefully do the whole town.... it will be alot of work but it will be so rewarding to get the whole town done.

I talked with Daniel yesterday about getting baptized again, and he is really standoffish about the whole thing, so we will keep encouraging him for now and probably challenge him again in a couple of weeks....

On Saturday we went to Paine's Prairie for a ward picnic. It is a National Park that is full of alligators. We went to the wrong part of it to see the gators, though but we still saw a couple of small ones. But in a couple of P-days I want to go to the other end and see some of the big ones... but anywho, I love you all and I am excited to hear from y'all love ya bye.

Monday, June 7th, 2010

We had a really good week. Jerald got baptized yesterday. It was Elder Bezzant's first... and I talked with Jerald's wife and she wants to get baptized, too, but she wants to take her time, so we are going to have to change that! It shouldn't be too hard...

We set a baptismal date with Zed as well and he is supposed to be getting baptized on the beach this Sunday if everything goes to plan. He opened up to us a lot on Tuesday and told us that his only hold up was his passion to make and have tattoos. He was talking about the art and stuff of it and he doesn't understand why it is bad to have them. However, he knows that God commanded not to.. so that is what he is going to do... he has a lot of faith, he just needs to man up and do it.

So, I got my trunky papers and it hasn't made me too trunky. I am excited to come home and all. But the only time I think about it is at night when we are out working. I don't have any problems staying focused. But man! I get home at 10:45a.m.! What am I gonna do all day... ??

Anyways next P-day Huff, Porter, Shirts, and Blair are all hopefully going to be coming to my area and we are going to go play Lazer tag at this sweet place near the beach... Anyways I don't have a lot to say and it is hard to come up with things to say when I know that I will be talking to y'all in just a couple a weeks... So love ya tons and hope to hear from y'all soon.

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Shopping done--- we had a great time in St. Augustine.

We found a sweet man named Jerald who is getting baptized this Sunday and we are hopefully going to baptize Zed on Saturday so we are hoping for a real good week.... Sorry I can't say more-- we are emailing at the Apple Store because the library is closed.

Love y'all.

Monday, April 26th, 2010

So I got a nice surprise on Sunday.. Brother and Sister Mootz from Ocala are an old couple that would feed us all of the time... Brother Mootz is a recent convert and I was able to help him out a lot with some of the commandments and we got along really well... They came to our ward to see me on Sunday. It was awesome! They only stayed for Sacrament meeting, but we decided to come down to Ocala to see them. So right now I am at the Mootz house doing our laundary and emails... they are an awesome couple...

I got to go on a trade off with Huff this week and we pretty much tracted all of Newberry which is a small town outside of Gainesville we had a good time and set quite a few baptismal dates... but they all fell through...

Pascal brought his girlfriend to church on Sunday and she seemed to have a really good time... we are going to try and talk with her about getting taught and then baptized. Hopefully we can arrange that for next week...

Well sorry my letter is so short this week. We are going to go over to the Reids soon and visit... then play soccer or something... after the Mootz feed us of course..... love you all tons...

Monday, May 24th, 2010

It was a pretty long and tiring week. We met some cool people and dropped some lame people but we aren't any much better or worse off than last week. We had a good lesson with Zed on Tuesday and we are going to see him on Tuesday again and hopefully set up his baptism for this weekend... but for the highlight of the week I met Elder Nelson which was awesome. He is such a happy person... I learned a lot... it was really good... we also had Elder Anderson who is an area authority, Elder Laurence, who is a member of the second quorum of the 70, and Elder Rasband who is one of the presidents of the 70 and he talked in conference this last session about missionary work so it was really cool...

We learned a lot about callings and how long the 70's have been around and what it is that they actually do... so it was overall an exciting week... I couldn't get any pictures with the authorities but I got pictures with all of the missionaries that I probably won't see before I go home...

I have President interviews on Friday and I think I am more excited for this interview than any of the other ones I have had... I am going to get my temple recommend renewed and hopefully get permission to go to St. Augustine next week for P-day so I can buy souveneirs, as well as say bye to Don and Liz...

That would all be exciting! I hope I can go...

Anyways I love y'all and hope to hear from y'all soon.
P.S. I got Shannon's letter so y'all have the right address-- don't stop sending them... hahahaha

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Yes I'm in Jacksonville again... Jax Beaches is my new Ward. It used to be the highest baptizing English speaking Ward in the world... that will be sweet... my companion is Elder Bezzant. He has been out for 2 months... so he is at the opposite end as me... I am by far the oldest in my District.... everyone else is super green... but I love them all. We have an awesome district here... I am back on bike however.... which is a bummer but I am still looking for a place to sell mine. If I have to I'm sure I can borrow a members for the rest of my mission... I took a hard fall yesterday. We were going to an apartment complex to tract and the seat of my bike just snapped! And before I realized anything was wrong I was laying on the asphalt with a headache... and my bike was at the other end of the parking lot... I fell on my head so thank goodness for the helmet and I got some deep holes in my left hand which helped to stop my fall... It was good fun.

We are going to see a part member family tomorrow in which the husband knows its true, But he wants to take a million years to get baptized like his wife did... I hate it when that happens, but we will see what we can do...

Elder Bezzant is sweet, he is from Colorado. He has very little confidence in himself however and he gets really nervous a lot, so I am trying to help him relax... We get to meet Elder Russell M. Nelson on Saturday. I am so excited... anyways, I love y'all and hope to hear from ya soon.

3709 San Pablo Rd. S.. #402

Jacksonville, Fl, 32224

Monday, April 12, 2010

So, this week we didn't do as good... but we still had a baptism... Michael Wangia who is a black guy from Kenya and totally sweet.... married a less active member years ago.. and they have had kids. He has met with the missionaries on and off for years, and he finally decided to get baptized. His father in law came from Washington to baptize his daughter who just turned 8. Right before the service started Michael walked out of the bathroom dressed in white! It was such an awesome moment! The father in law was so confused.... on Sunday we had Testimony meeting and both Sister Wangia and her dad, who baptized Michael bore there testimonies and it was a very powerful meeting...

We got Pascal to come but Daniels car broke down again and he had to go get it fixed. We're are hoping to baptize him soon. He doesn't feel he is ready yet, but he doesn't understand that he is more than ready...

We started going to the gym here. It is huge! Two stories and there was barely anybody there to use it. We went at like 6 though, so I guess that is expected.

The members of the ward are awesome... the best fellow shippers I have had in an area.. however, I don't like the ward mission leader at all and he doesn't like me. We have already clashed a couple of times... from the missionaries who have served here before I have learned that he doesn't like missionaries too much, which doesn't make sense to me at all.
He got mad at me because I asked the Elders Quorum President if we could set up splits one night a week... Brother Lebarbera (ward mission leader) says that I have to go through him to communicate with the ward in any way. And he told me that when I go home it will be a happy day for the ward... I am usually good at ignoring ridiculous members... but I don't know how long I can go without rebuking Brother Lebarbera... I am going to call him tonight and ask him to find me someone in the ward who can give me a hair cut.... hahahaha That will be awesome!
anyways I love you all ...

Monday, April 5, 2010

So I am now in Gainesville, Florida..." Home of the Gators"... this place rocks! I am in Gainesville 2nd ward and it is, by reputation... kind of a dreaded ward.... Elder Huff is still my Zone Leader and he told me that the ward is against missionaries and it is hard to have success here because it's such a rich area... So I got here on Thursday and my companion is Elder Izatt ( by the way he goes home right after i do)... I was asking him about the area and he said that we don't have a lot going. There is a part member family that we have been working with so we can start there. And start there we did. His name is Michael and he is a doctor and he is freaking sweet! We had a pretty good lesson with him and his daughter who is turning 8 is getting baptized this Saturday and he set a date to get baptized with her at her baptism... so that was a good start!

Then I asked Elder Izatt if we had anyone else and he said these Haitian guys came to church on Sunday. So we went to see Pascal and Daniel. Daniel was not there.. so we talked with Pascal and it turns out he was so freakin' sweet... they hadn't even invited him to be baptized.... he and I hit it off really well and then the Spirit took over. I don't even remember what I said to him and I quoted and used scriptures from the Book of Mormon and Bible that I had read over a bunch of times and never even knew what was in them... the Spirit turned my hand to the proper scriptures and every one was exactly what Pascal needed to hear... he then poured his soul out to us and told us all the sins he had committed and he wondered if he could be cleansed and we testified that he could. We committed him to be baptized on Sunday after conference... so conference came and he did now show up. The baptism was scheduled for 6:30 and at six Izatt and I drove over to his house to find no one home... I was getting worried. We got back at the church at 6:30 and the Bishop was there and everyone, and I knew that if we were to have success in this area I had to make a good impression with the ward at the start or it just wouldn't work. So I went outside the church and knelt down and prayed and as I was praying I got a call from Pascal saying that his car had broken down but he got it working and they were almost there... Daniel came and told us that he wanted to be baptized too and Raphael, Pascal's girlfriend, came who was against the church at first.... but Pascal got baptized and confirmed right there and then. The Ward that I thought was going to be horrible, because of all the stories I had heard jumped on Pascal, Daniel and Raphael... the Relief Society invited Raphael... and she had a change of heart about our church... Afterwards I called Huff to tell him the miracle and he was shocked that the ward was so helpful. I asked him who had served in the ward before me and as far as he could remember most of the missionaries that had served in this ward for a couple of years were all lazy missionaries... this ward was a gold mine and nobody even knew it... anyways I love you all and here is my new address...

7901 w. University ave #9

Gainesville, FL 32607

p.s. I got your package mom and I had completely forgotten that Sunday was going to be Easter until Pascal told us how happy he was to be baptized on Easter Sunday, His name means Easter in Creole... love you

Monday, March 29, 2010

I am getting transferred. I don't know where to, but I will find out on Thursday...

Chris got baptized yesterday. He even got up and bore his testimony... which was hilarious. He asked Blair how to do it and Blair told him you just tell them what you know and then close in the name of Jesus Christ amen... So he goes up there and says" hi y'all... how y'all doin.... I'm gettin baptized today and I learned lots.... amen... then he stands there for like 5 seconds and comes back down. It was hilarious and way sweet and it was in front of a Seventy as well. Elder Anderson of the 70 was there... hahahahaha. It was good. Harrison baptized him and it was awesome cuz it was so low he had to baptize him 4 times It was awesome... we are going to the Reid's for pday today. I am going to miss that family....I am going to miss Ocala, and my comps.....

Anyways I love you all and I will let ya know where I go next week.



Elder Blair's letter and a note from Debbie Blair:

Karen, he is really going to miss serving with your son! I know that Trevon is looking forward to a new area, however I wish it was 6 weeks in the future and not this week that he was moving to a new area. Sounds like they had big plans for Elder Rogers last p-day in Ocala. Thanks so much for raising such a fine young man that has left a huge impression on Seth. I hope they will remain lifelong friends (I know we will!!) They played hard and they worked hard-that is the perfect combination for success! Good for them! I hope Elder Rogers gets an amazing companion…sounds like Seth is wondering if his new companion can measure up to Elder Rogers!! Let me know where he goes!

Hugs!

Debbie

March 29, 2010

Hey family and fans!

This week was really something; Elder Porter, Rogers and I have been having loads of fun! But first things first, Transfers: Sadly Elder Rogers is leaving and I am staying. So what that means is Elder Porter and I will both get new companions.

Second thing: We did have a baptism this last week! Chris was baptized and confirmed on Sunday (since next Sunday is General conference). But sadly, Jerrell could not make it to church to be baptized on Sunday so we will keep working with him. This last Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting (because next week of course is General Conference). So Chris was setting next to me during the meeting and kept asking all kinds of questions…like; “What are they doing? Why are they doing that? Who all can go up?” I answered each of his questions. Then the next question was "Can I go up there?" I said, “Sure, if the Holy Ghost is telling you to go up- then go ahead.” Then I told him how the proper way to bear testimony and what to say (basically) and how to close in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Chris then turns to me with a grin and says he is going up next. (And to top it off we had a visiting 70 show up to the sacrament- Elder Anderson). So Chris tells Elder Porter he is going up too… and you should have seen my companion's face, it was so funny! Elder Rogers looked shocked and horrified all at the same time! It was classic!

So next thing we know Chris is walking up front. He gets up there, looks out at everybody, and was like "How ya'll doin?" Then he said he has learned a lot about the church, and thanked everyone for being so nice to him. Then he paused and said “amen” then he walked back down and took a seat. Lol It was so sweet! Straight from the heart! Chris came back and started talking to me about “Now since he did that- he was famous and everything!” Oh, it was too funny!

His baptism was scheduled for 5:30 pm and it was really good, (except the water was low again!) We had someone from the young men’s quorum baptize him, and Chris had to be baptized 4 times (because body parts kept coming up because the water was so low). Then after the third dunk they, decided to have them both get down on their knees to do the baptism. It was way sweet though. Chris will have a great baptism story to tell everyone, (maybe it will even make him famous all over again…) ha-ha!!

So that was the main parts of this week. It was a good week! I just hope I get another sweet companion now! We will not know who our companions will be until this coming Thursday. Also Elder See is not getting transferred either. He is staying in Chiefland for his last transfer. He is out after this next 6 weeks. Lol I think he leaves the mission May 12th (I believe), so about a week before my one-year mark. Our next Zone Conference will be in April.

The three of us are cutting our letters short this week because Elder Porter and I are off to make sure Elder Roger’s last p-day with us is one he will remember!! So I really gotta go- we want to make Rogers last p-day sweet, sweet!! Big plans!! So we will talk to you later. Wishing everyone all the best! Hope ya’ll have a great Easter week!!

Love
Elder Blair who is excited for General Conference-Florida style!

March 8, 2010

So this week was pretty good. We were able to teach a lot of lessons because we are in a three man now... so we can get twice the work done.... we were referred a guy named Jack Kelly who has a friend in DC that is a member and he gave Jack a BOM... He has read First Nephi so far and knows it's true he is getting baptized on Saturday.. his dad jumped him for his desire to be baptized and told him Joseph Smith was the Anti-Christ.... but that didn't change Jack's mind at all. In fact we had a Temple trip on Saturday and since my recommend is now expired I just stayed outside the Temple but Jack came with us so I stayed outside with him and he loved it. He bought a bunch of stuff at the book store... he is such a cool guy.... I would like all a y'all to keep him in your prayers though because of his family they aren't too cooperative...

Other than that Cathy's family didn't make it so we have to get them to come next week and then they can be baptized...

Now I am over two ards so I have to be at church from 7 in the morning till about 5 in the afternoon.... that is a long time to be at church.... but its all good...

I am going to get some pictures developed today and then I am sending my memory card home tomorrow... I love you all.

March 22, 2010

We had a really good week even though I was sick through most of it... I got a bad head cold and spent about 2 days of sleeping straight but it's all good. I am better now... we had a good turn out in church we found a young man named Chris who is 17 and set a baptismal date for him on the 28th and he brought one of his friends to church on Sunday. We set a date with him for the same day so we are having two baptisms next week.... it will be a good way to leave the area if i do, we have transfer calls on Saturday... We have been tracting areas that I have already tracted this last week... and when I tracted this particular area about 5 months ago I found a sweet woman and set a date with her but we never got a hold of her again so I assumed that her husband anti-ed her... but Elder Blair tracted that same house and met the husband and set a baptismal date with him for the 4th of April... Blair says that he is way cool. We are going over tomorrow to meet them and hopefully we can set dates with the rest of the family.... haha that would be awesome...

So, I have 3 months left tomorrow... two more transfers... I feel so old. I have been out as long as Elder Vincent was when he trained me... anyways, I love you all and I hope to hear from you soon.

From Elder Blair's Blog:
Lately we have been teaching this part member; his name is Shaun. He is a pretty sweet guy and he really likes World of Warcraft. As we were teaching him about the Plan of Salvation, a scripture came to my mind. The scripture reminded me that I should “teach people to their understanding” (I think it is somewhere in 2 Nephi 31). Anyway when we were explaining to Shaun about the different degrees of glory I told him the telestial kingdom has a lvl cap (World of Warcraft talk) and you can only go to 50. The terrestrial lvl cap. is 70 and Celestial has no lvl cap. lol I thought I did pretty well with that analogy and he seemed to like it, and understood better what we were trying to teach him.

Also this week the Spanish Elders ran into a guy named Chris that said he wanted to know more about our church. However, since he was English speaking they didn't teach him a whole lot. They gave us his phone number and his address. That same night we were having a ward party, (at the party they were going to have a play about “A week in the life of a Mormon”), so we called Chris up and invited him to come. He did show up and he had a blast! The food there was amazing- everyone was suppose to bring food from a different country so there was Japanese food, Turkish food, there was a palm tree stew, and frog legs! It was all really good! Afterwards Chris said he had a blast, so we asked him if he would come to church the next day, and he agreed.

So at 9 o’clock Chris was there and even brought a friend. They were both sitting through Sacrament meeting, which was less then exciting. Oh my goodness; no offence to the speakers but for 19 year old kids -I don't think it was that great. I mean they were falling asleep (I was having trouble staying awake myself), but after the closing prayer I turned to them and asked, “So are you guys ready for class?” They looked at me like I was stupid and said "We just had class man!" I felt kinda bad for them- because we didn't mention that church was 3 hours oops... but I promised them that class would be fun. They were like "I hope so."

I took them to the Young Men’s class and I grabbed Harrison (a member that was going to be in the same class with them) I told him, “Promise me they will have fun” and he said he would make it fun!" They did have fun and really enjoyed the class, being with kids their own age was good. However then I told them there was one more class. They were amazed and started talking about how hungry they were, and that they wanted to go home. Somehow I managed to get them into the other class. I just decided to hang around outside of their class (cause there was no more room in the Bishops office, where the class was being taught). While I was sitting there thinking (about them) Rogers came by and was like; “Blair before they leave invite them to be baptized” (well that was already one of the things I was actually thinking about.) I told Elder Rogers that I had been thinking that same thing so we talked about it for a while. I told Rogers that I didn’t know if they would want to be baptized into a church that is 3 hours long, ha-ha! But we both thought “What the heck we will ask them and see.” So after they got out of their Sunday School class I asked Chris and Jarell to follow me into the gym for a minute. I asked them, “If they liked church?” They said that it was “really good”, (which kinda shocked me that they would say that).

I explained to them that the “feeling of goodness inside them right then” was the Holy Spirit testifying to them that this was God's church. I went on to ask them if they would both be baptized next Sunday. They thought about it for a second, and then I said “Trust me it’s not that hard “so they both said yes! I also explained to them that as missionaries we are their guides for them; to help prepare them to be baptized. I told them about the word of wisdom and law of chastity and they said they were good with all of that stuff. Then later that same night they came back to church for a youth fireside. Now we have two baptisms happening this Sunday, which is way sweet! I am pretty excited for all of that!!

March 15, 2010

Hey guys ...we had an awesome week. Jack got baptized... he is so stalwart! When we went to the Temple last week he bought an 8 hour movie of church history, and on Wednesday we watched a movie on Joseph Smith and it showed the Liberty Jail scene. Jack is like: "is that where he received revelations 121 and 122? hahaha so dope.. His new goal is to baptize as many people as possible before he leaves on a mission next year... He took a bunch of B.Of Ms to give to all his friends... so sweet!

We have also been having a war with the Spanish Elders playing pranks on each other...We stole one of their paintings and then they stole it back... and this time they locked their door, so we couldn't get back in ... haha ya right!.. I climbed up to their 2 story balcony and went in through a window.. then I went and let Porter and Blair in and we put limburger cheese in their air vents and stole all their light bulbs and saran wrapped their toilet seat... hahahahah

it was awesome! Today we stole their house key and made a copy of it at Lowe's so now we are in charge!

anyways I'm sorry I don't have a lot to say but I love you all!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Note from Mom:

Here is Trevon's letter, and I feel it is a good one.  His companion had done
a quick call to me on Saturday morning...saying Trevon needed $ in his
account....(dummy me.....just go too busy to check the account, and it had
$3.00 in it.).  He was going into Orlando and they wanted to visit Deseret
Book while he was there.  I was pleasantly surprised to see he only spent
$6 in Orlando....yeah Trevon.....You can tell by this letter he has really
grown on this mission experience.  I am just sad that Elder Crowther did not
make it,   I hope he gets the help he needs.
I sent Don and Liz a plaque that says "Family's are forever",  she should get
it today.  She calls me occasionally.
I had noticed on the mission blog that Elder Bednar was at the Orlando
Temple on Saturday and wondered if Trevon had seen any of them, but he did
not mention it......


Monday I got a call from Cathy saying that Germaine had to go to Miami for
a court order and got put on probation and he cannot leave Miami... so
Cathy got baptized on Friday night...  it was the hardest baptism of my
life.... she is a rather large woman and the font barely filled up past my
knees.  But I did it without having to retry...  she also got confirmed on
Sunday and that was an awesome miracle...



Saturday I took Don through the temple... it was the coolest experience
ever!  It was even more exciting when I saw Liz in the Temple as well.  I
didn't know she was ready to go through but she did as well... Don loved
it and stayed in the Celestial room praying long after we all left.
People say that you can only convert people to your level of conversion...
but I think that is false!   I think that Don's testimony is much greater
than my own!  Saturday was one of the most inspiring days of my life...  I
have known what Don and Liz used to be and how much sin had been in their
lives... and to see them both dressed in white inside the House of the
Lord was just incredible...  to know how the atonement had effected them
both was so wonderful...
Another miracle... James and Angie got baptized on Saturday as well.... I
was kinda bummed because I couldn't be there because of the Temple but it
was awesome all the same....  this was the most epic week of my mission...

Today I am in Jacksonville.... Elder Blair stayed in Ocala with the
Spanish missionaries while Porter and I took Elder Crowther to the
airport.   Then we slept up here with Elder Probert in Jax 2nd....  we are
going to play basketball while we are here then we will be driving back to
Ocala this evening...

I was noticing how well I know my way around here... last night as we were
driving up,  Porter and Crowther were both asleep...  and it made me think
back to when I got here and this place seemed so foreign... but now I know
how to get to anywhere in the mission without a map or GPS or anything....
shows how long I've been out, huh...
Anyways I love you all and I hope to hear from y'all soon.
bye
Note from Mom:
This is from Liz Clark, whose husband Trevon escorted to the Temple on Saturday.  It made me cry.  

Hi, Karen. Sorry it took me time to reply. I check my
computer once a week. It went so great.. he looked sad saying good bye to
us. We did take pictures.. what a happy day it was. He gave Don a
suit and music cd's to us. I told him if he ever needed a place to
stay he is welcome in our home. He replied I want to go back to Arizona. He
loves and misses his home. I am so close to him. I told my husband it hurts
me just as much saying good bye to him as it does my own son. He has
become so much more reverent considering I met him when he just came out on his
mission.I've watched him change in such a good way, closer to Heavenly
Father. He has grown into a man loving of Heavenly Father. You would
be so proud to see the level of wisdom he now carries in his eyes and on
his face. As mothers we would all be so lucky to see this level of growth and
change in our children. We would like to thank your family for raising a special
child that has turned into a wonderful man that has changed the lives around him
forever and for that I am eternally grateful. Thank you

Note from Mom:

For anyone interested, I also read Elder Blair's (Trevons companion) letter on his blog this morning....It is full of so many more details.....if you want it is ElderBlair.blogspot.com I think..... I cried thru it. But that is just a missionary mom....you guys will understand...when you have sons on missions!

Love you all......

From Elder Blair's blog:

My new companion’s name is Elder Rogers from Arizona. He is a well-seasoned missionary. Elder Rogers has been out for 20 months! (Wow!!) Therefore, he will be going home soon. I am excited to serve with him because I know I will learn a lot from him. In addition, this apartment is a bit better then my last one, (by that, I mean a little bit nicer accommodations).

Is it just me or did that last week seem to fly by? Well this week was pretty sweet! Elder Rogers and I have been doing very well in this area! The new area is pretty nice, very green. My apartment is a typical missionary apartment, it did have a dishwasher but it broke (ha-ha) and we have a laundry mat right in the apartment complex- so that is handy. What is really cool is that in May (on the 22nd to be exact) Elder Russell M. Nelson is coming to our mission! Wow! And guess what? Elder Nelson had the choice to choose one mission in the entire world and he selected us! (Yes, sweet action, for the Jacksonville Mission) So that’s pretty sweet! We're all getting pumped for that!

We also had a super sweet miracle this week! We had an investigator that had a very abusive boyfriend. He was very controlling- to the point that he would not let her come to church or anything. And yet she wanted to be baptized. Then one day he had to go down to Miami on a court order. While there, he was put on probation, which meant that he could not leave Miami.
So Elder Rogers went on a member trade off to her house and committed her to be baptized this weekend (because she had already been to church twice). We planned the baptism for Friday. But every day leading up to it her baptism date; her boyfriend kept calling her and giving her all kinds of threats. He would tell her to come to Miami etc. So we told her to cut off all contact with him. And she has, she even went as far as to throw all of his clothes from the house into the garbage (lol) which was pretty sweet!

The day of her baptism, she was getting really nervous and was trying to back out of the whole thing. We talked to her and asked her, “Cathy who is the only person that would want to keep you from being baptized?” She said, “The Devil.” After that she went ahead and came to church for the baptism (even though some of her family was trying to talk her out of it as well) They were worried cause she was not feeling good that day. But she went through with it! One thing you should know is that she is also DEATHLY afraid of water. It just seemed like everything was going wrong that day, one thing after another.

We went at 4 pm to start the water running to fill up the font, and at 6:30pm, it was only past Elder Rogers ankles. Cathy still got in the font and got dunked (barley) and after that, she gave Elder Rogers a big hug! She had a huge smile, one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen! Her little son Donte (who was already baptized several weeks ago), stood up on the splash shield and said, “Way to go mom, you did it!! He was her personal cheering team! Then Cathy ran up the baptismal stairs saying, “I did it! Thank you Jesus, I did it!” Lol it was pretty funny.

Cathy is a pretty big black woman so it was just sweet, seeing her envelop her son in a massive hug! I tell you Cathy has such a sweet spirit about her. I just love to be around her and her son. Then Sunday came and she was confirmed! Everything is well with Cathy, the opposing forces were just pressing her hard, but she is filled with the spirit and is just so happy and thankful for the gospel. Right now, we are just going to try to move her out of her house super soon. We are also going to try to get her a new phone number so that her boyfriend can't find her and Donte once he gets off probation in Miami.

So now, Elder Rogers and I have to find more people that are ready so we can get them baptized for the miracles of March! I just know it is going to be a way sweet month! March indeed will be a lucky month full of miracles in the mission field!

Elder Rogers and I also had the chance to drive down to the Orlando Temple this last week. It is about an hour and a half away from where we live now. The day was rather rainy all day that day, but not too bad. It didn’t seem to matter much to any of us. It was a way sweet, sweet day! We went through an endowment session because Elder Rogers had a convert (that he baptized when he first came out into the mission field, way back from the start of his mission) taking out his endowments. He asked that Elder Rogers go through with him, so we had special permission to leave our Mission area and attend the temple with his convert. It was a very amazing day. Elder Rogers was all smiles, I don’t think he stopped smiling the entire day...lol! Anyway, it is a sweet experience to know that you taught them the gospel and then to know they are going through the temple. Maybe someday I will be able to go with Jason and Debbie when they get their endowments’. A super sweet miracle for sure!

Monday, February 22, 2010

So, first off I am going to the Temple on Saturday with Don.   I am so
excited.... I talked with James and he said that it is taking a lot longer
for him to get permission to be re-baptized than he thought... so it
probably won't be for a couple more months. Or weeks hopefully....

Also, I heard from Cathy that Germaine has his court appearance tomorrow and
he is getting put on probation... so now he cannot leave Miami so Cathy
should be free of him by now.   She will be calling me later to let me
know about everything... she will be getting baptized on Saturday
hopefully after we get home from the Temple...  that is what we are
shooting for anyways... so my new companion is named Elder Blair.... he is
a way sweet guy.   He is really neat in a fun way and he is ok with being
a nerd so that makes him a cool nerd... but the most exciting part is that
he is a good missionary who can hold his own!  This will be the first time
since before I trained Hill that I have had a companion that can teach on
his own and still have success so we will be having a lot of miracles this
transfer...  Elder Blair is from some nowhere in Utah...  never heard of
it and I don't think I could pronounce it either...



I will be sending some pictures home this week I just have to go by a post
office at some point and get a package box to send home in...
Elder Crowther who is Porters companion has intense a.d.d. and really bad autism and it's
been causing a lot of problems for the last 6 weeks since he came out...
President is planning on sending him home this week which is really sad even
though he can't properly function out here...  so we might be in a three man
this time next week.  We will see.   There might still be hope for
Crowther...
Anyways, we are going to play soccer again today and then tonight we have a
couple of appointments that I hope will go really well... so I love you
all and hope to hear from you soon.


Note from Mom:
I am so excited because Trevon's new companion is a real go getter!  His mom
and I have talked off and on thru the months by email.....and I have been
reading Elder Blair's blog since he first went into the field.  I think he is
what Trevon needs, we will see how long it lasts.......at least one
transfer.  I already got email from Elder Blair's mom, and she said she was
dancing around her desk at work!  She is way excited too!

February 16, 2010

Sorry I didn't write yesterday... It was a holiday so the library wasn't
open... and we don't have much time today 'cuz we have to go work.   So I
will be writing real quick....  I got permission from President to go with
Don to the Temple, he just has to set it up and we're going.  I haven't
heard from James...

Elder Reiche is getting transferred on Thursday and I am staying here...
sorry  but I have to go. Thanks so much for all of the letters I have been
getting and I love you all.


I was on my way out of the library when Liz called so I decided to come
back in and tell you that they are going through the Temple on the 27th!
Hahaha, so excited. I love you!   Bye.

February 8, 2010

This week was pretty slow. We had a lot of rain and found a lot of people
that weren't very promising...  we did get one pretty sweet miracle though.
We got a referral for a girl named Kimberly from a member who lives in
Arizona... apparently she has read the Book of Mormon and she loves it she says it
makes a lot more sense than the bible to her...  I talked to her on the
phone and she sounds sweet. She wants to meet us at the church so she can
have a tour as we teach her.... I am pretty excited hopefully we will be
able to meet her tonight.
Other than that not a lot happened.  We got soaked and I got a flat tire but
got it fixed without any problems. I rode over a huge piece of glass... it
dominated my tire so I had to buy a new tread and everything.  It turned
out to be a good thing, however. I changed my brake pads while I was doing
the tire and the old brake pads were so worn away that all the rubber was
gone and I had been using it with the bare metal.. haha!
It was all good fun though.
Anyways, I'm sorry I don't have a lot to say this week... hopefully I will have
more to talk about next week.
Love you all.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Well, hello there everybody... this week was a pretty good week... we
taught a lot of people and we found a lot of new investigators.   The only
problem is none of them came to church..... bummer... so WE were
disappointed!.. Going to find new ones this week...  Cathy still has the
same problems, Jermaine.
On Sunday we had Stake Conference that was broadcast from Salt Lake.
Elder Perry spoke and then right as Elder Eyring was getting up to give the
final, talk the connection went bad and we lost it.   So they are going to
print out the talk and read it in a couple weeks or so.  But I got a huge
miracle yesterday... Don called to ask me if he could give his dog a
blessing... haha!  That wasn't the miracle though, Don is meeting with
President Patch, the Stake President of Jax South Stake, this week to get
his temple recommend signed.  He asked me if I would take him through his
endowment session, and be his escort.  He doesn't know when it's going to be
but it will be on a Saturday most likely and very soon... I hope it is real
soon because we get transfer calls on the 13th and I am the closest to
Orlando in the mission right now so that would be real convenient.   But Don
said he would come pick me up anyways.
I am so excited and I hope President will let me go with them.  I love Don
and Liz so much.  Remember, he is the first baptism I had on my mission.
Anyways nothing else has really been happening.   We are having a hard time
finding new investigators,  so prayers would be nice.   I would greatly
appreciate it.
Love you all.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Sorry I am writing so late in the day.   We played soccer all morning and
then came home for showers and we just got to the library...

This week was crazy... we taught 270 lessons...  we found a lot of people
that might end up being way sweet.   We are still in the finding mode, 
though, but hopefully we will be seeing some miracles here in this next
week.

We were almost in this intense accident today.  Harrison was driving us to
go get smoothies after soccer: and all the sudden we hear this crash right
behind us and this car goes flying past us on the left and through
oncoming traffic,  off the road and ramps,  off a hill,  and lands
perfectly in a parking space.   It was nuts...it scared me to death...

We stopped and made sure everyone was alright and then moved on.... nuts
how close it was to us and we weren't even touched.

So, not a lot else happened last week.  We went to go contact a less active
family and it turns out they don't live there any more.   We talked to the
owner of the house and he apparently evicted them a long time ago.... and
when he did.... there was human poop all over the house.... it was
disgusting!  How can anyone be like that?
Anyways I am looking forward to any letters that I might be getting this
next week. Hint hint!  I  love you all.

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Sorry I did not write yesterday ....the library was closed, it was a
holiday!
So this last week was good.  I will tell y'all a little more about my new
companion Elder Reiche is from Utah....he is a good guy.  We are working really hard... we contact all day almost
Everyday, so pretty much all we do is teach... it's pretty exciting...
We set 6 baptismal dates last week even though we couldn't get any of them
to church... it is an improvement.  I want to get at least 15 this week...
we started focusing on less active work...  we planned to go see a 20 year
old named Patrick Hoover and we took Harrison, a Priest in the ward who has
become my best friend..... he rocks!  We are even planning on rooming
together at BYU-I. Anyways, we took him to go see Patrick and on the way
there he asked who we were going to see.... and I was like" Patrick Hoover"
and he flipped out.  Apparently his older sister was the one that got
Patrick baptized so he was way excited... we went over there and talked with
him and got him excited to come to church on Sunday...  and he came..
. He is a cool kid... after church we went to see him again and his twin brother
Ed, who came to church, too was there and he was wasted.  He tried to hide a bottle
of vodka when we walked in. I laid down a rebuke and he said he would try to do
better but he was so drunk he probably didn't even know what was going on so we
are going to go over their again tomorrow night with Harrison and talk with him about
getting baptized...

we also got a less active named Vince Morales coming back to church... he lives
with his mom and he is like 35. Hopefully bringing him back to church will help
get him going again in life...
Other than all that not a lot happened...
O ya the funniest thing ever... I got asked out by a girl named Mistie
(spelled the same way) who works at Best Buy.  I was contacting outside
teaching this old guy and she just walked up and waited for me to get done
teaching and then she asked me if I wanted to go to a bar with her
tonight....  it was one of the most awkward situations of my life but I
was able to teach her but she is a party girl and doesn't want to change.
It was kinda funny ---I never expected it...  it was so random...
Yesterday we played soccer--- a bunch of missionaries from Gainesville came
down and Harrison brought a bunch of his friends it was a blast... I'm not
very good at soccer but I had fun just the same... Elder Huff is on a
trade off down here with us, it is good to have him back...
Elder Porter and I went on a trade off last week... his companion has some
mental problems that make him really slow in the week since he has gotten
here I have only heard him talk a dozen times & he won't even answer us some
times so President told Elder Porter to relieve himself by going on a lot
of trade offs with the district.
I'm having a good time though and I hope to hear from y'all soon.

January 11, 2010

 Well, hello there!
I wear glasses now... I don't think I look bad but I will probably get
contacts when I get home... if I bother at all I can still see well
without glasses but I can't read signs and stuff that are not real close
to me so it just might be a driving thing...

Cathy still is having trouble with Jermaine who refuses to leave.  We are
trying to make him feel as comfortable as possible so he wants to
leave...  hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later...

I added up all of my numbers from my mission and I have taught about 5200
lessons in 18 months... I decided my goal for the rest of my mission is to
teach 4800 more. I want to teach 10000 people before I come home... I am
going to have to teach at least 200 lessons a week and 1250 lessons in a
transfer for me to accomplish this.... I am so stoked for it it will
definitely keep me from being too trunky.

Anyways it was sad to hear about "the robber"........  I too am suprised he
didn't hit our house.   He might have forgotten I had a WII, because I had
invited him to play basketball so many times.  He knew that I was really into playing sports so he might
have thought that I didn't play video games...

Anyways not much has happened but we are going to work our tails off this
week.
I love you all.

January 4, 2010

So transfer calls came... Elder  Bagley is going to Interlachen on
Wednesday and Elder Rieche is coming here from Interlachen to be my
companion... Elder Huff is going up to Gainesville to be my Zone Leader
and Elder Williams is going to Jacksonville to be a zone leader... the
only two that are staying are Elder Porter and I.
We got our goal of 1050 for the year and we have got a new goal to hit for
2010... 3050  1300 baptisms and 1750 re-activiations...
Holy Cow...
Well we had a good week we found a family of less actives and got them to
church and they are excited to be active again.  We talked with Cathy's
family about being baptized and we will be baptizing the rest of her kids
and her grandkids a week from Sunday...  other than that not a lot
happened.
I am pretty excited for this next transfer though Elder Rieche seems like a
pretty cool guy... he has been out about 8 months so he is somewhat
experienced. I hope he likes contacting and riding bikes because I have
tracted all of the places within biking distance already... hahaha.  But we
will probably be doing a lot more member work for the rest of my stay in the
mission.

We have a mission conference in Jacksonville on Thursday to figure out how
we are going to do member work cuz no body in the mission knows how... all
we can do is baptize hahahahahaha.
Anyways I love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

December 28, 2009

So I probably won't write a lot today because I just talked to y'all on
Christmas...

Cathy was able to come to church on Sunday and her son Daunte got confirmed so we
will be working on getting her baptized this week...

Jermaine is a loser and she will hopefully be getting him out of the house
this week as well...that is her abusive boyfriend that is scary!

We shall see but keep praying for Cathy.... she needs it right now.
anyways I love you all.

December 21, 2009

So, this was probably the longest and most exciting week of my mission....
On Tuesday, Elder Williams gave an incredible training for district
meeting.  We were really close to reaching the mission goal of baptizing
1050 people in the year... and we needed to baptize someone that week.  So,
we looked through all our records for someone who has been to church that
we could baptize... but there weren't any.
So, we went tracting... Bagley was doing one half of the neighborhood and I
was on the other side... I decided that it would be fun to run from door to
door.  So, I started running and I was thinking about how we could find
people to baptize this week.  I decided I couldn't do the normal approach cuz
that would take too long so I just knocked on the first door and asked have
you been to the Ghurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints before and
she said no. So, I said Lord bless you and started running to the next
house... I did that for 2 hours and didn't teach a single lesson...
As I was running down the street, however, a woman pulled up next to me in
her car and rolled down the window.  She asked what I was running from and
I told her nothing and asked her if she had been to church...
She said no, when can I come?...  just laughed and took her address down,
and her name, which is Cathy... I told her we would come by tomorrow... I
didn't think anything of it.
The next day we had President interviews and it was probably the best one
of my mission. I told President about the whole story except I left out
Cathy because I didn't think she was a big deal in the whole thing and he
loved my new approach... so later that day we went to her house and told
her where the Church was and invited her to our Wednesday night class...
At the class, Bagley put on The Testaments for all of the recent converts
to watch and when Cathy showed up, to our suprise,
I took her into another room and taught the first discussion.... turns out she has been to church 4 or 5
times and has read the Book of Mormon and already knew it was true...
hahaha!
So, we set up her baptism for Sunday, yesterday.
I called President that night and told him the miracle and he was so
excited about the whole thing...
Then we had mission conference and President had me come up during the
devotional and share my miracle and my testimony in front of the entire
mission.... After that, he did the entire training on how we all need to
have the faith to run... it was so cool! Then President pulled me aside
again and told me that Cathy is a bigger miracle than I understand....
Friday we had Elder Williams come to interview her for baptism and we
found a major problem... She is living with her boyfriend who is 14 years
younger than her and abusive...  She wants to get away from him so that is
her job for this week--to get him to move back to Miami where he is
from....  but her son Daunte got baptized on Sunday.

I finally understood what President meant by saying she is a bigger
miracle than I understand. He was definitely under the influence of the
spirit when he said that because as we were talking to her last night she
confessed to us that she wants all her kids and grand kids to get baptized
as well and she is going to set up all of the baptisms for us...
We are planning on baptizing her, her 2 daughters, one of her daughter's 2
grandkids, and her next door neighbor this next Sunday... so we are going
to need some prayers for Cathy Farmer-- she needs the courage to get
Jermaine, her boyfriend, out of the house.  We are going over their every
night this week to give her more support, but all the support that y'all can
give her through prayer will be stronger than that.
Another miracle-- our mission baptized and confirmed a total of 1055 people
this year. We reached our goal yesterday...
Anyways, thanks for all you do and I am excited to hear from everyone on
Christmas. I will probably call early. Love ya!

December 14, 2009

Hey the comp is being way slow today so my email will be short...
In our district here in Ocala we had 8 baptisms this week but the coolest
one was Bridget.  She was a part member family who is the daughter of an
inactive member.  In all six of us missionaries taught her at different
times and brought her to baptism it was sweet... she was supposed to get
baptized on Saturday at 2 but she got in a huge car accident and she
couldn't walk... so we gave her a blessing and she came and got baptized
anyways cuz she wanted it so bad.... then Sunday came around and they
announced that she wasn't going to be confirmed today because she had to
be rushed to the er.. because her pain was so bad... after the Sacrament
the doors open and she comes in on crutches with her Mom by her side....
she walks up to the front..... gets confirmed and then she had to be
rushed back to the hospital because of the pain... it was epic.... one of
the most inspiring things I have ever seen...
sorry my email wasn't any better.. I love you all.
>
>

December 9, 2009

Sorry, I didn't write on Monday. We were in Gainesville all day and didn't
have time to make it...  but we had a good time. Elder Huff is going to be
playing the violin in the mission conference on the 17th so he needed to
go up there and practice.  We just played basketball, but we ended up
staying there really late and didn't have time to write home or go the the
store.
Well, we had a trade off with the district leader and he is Spanish. I
got to go with his companion to his area... Elder Hansen just came out and
can speak Spanish about as good as I can.  Also, he is scared to talk to
everyone so I got to teach some Spanish people yesterday...it was way funny.
We have met some cool new people lately, but no body incredibly prepared,
but we will go find some tomorrow and that will be a load of fun.
Anyways, I am sorry it's such a short letter but it's not p-day and we have
things to do.  I love you all and I am excited for Christmas when I
get to talk to y'all again.
OK, so for Christmas this year I need maybe two new white shirts--16 1/2
neck and two more pairs of slacks.  Pick some cool colors and designs-- it can
even be gray as long as its not like bright i can wear it...
Other than that I would rather you just put the money that you would
normally spend on me in my sock drawer or something for when I get home...
I really don't want or need anything right now.
If anybody else in the family wants to send me stuff I wouldn't say no to
some more ties.
Anyways, mom, I love you and thanks for all the letters and everything else.

**Note from mom**
This is so cool cause this is like 6 months ago....Trevon must have made an
impression on James and Angie.....

P.S. Mom, I don't know if you remember me telling you about an
ex-communicated member in Dunn Ave. that wanted me to come up and bless his
baby. Well, he and his wife are getting baptized and they want me to come do
it so i have to drive all the way across the mission on Saturday the 19th
to baptize James and Angie Howard... i am so stoked!

And I am going to need glasses when i get home most likely for driving.
I am starting to notice that I am near-sighted and can't read signs
until I am within 20 yards of them...

November 30, 2009

So Thanksgiving was sweet! In the morning we went to a members house and ate a lot of food. They sent us home with a lot as well. And then at night we went to another members house and ate a lot of food... and guess what! They sent a lot of food home with us too... We aren't going to have to go shopping for anything but milk for hopefully the rest of the year! That would be so nice...

So on Saturday we were tracting and we found a woman named Stephanie Medly who invited us right in and loved everything we said! ! She was soo sweet and said she has never been baptized and she wants to be baptized and her kids and her husband with her... such an awesome woman!.. We are going over to meet her husband and daughter who is 12 tonight and hopefully they will get baptized on Sunday after church... they have a 5 year old son, too... I talked to her about how her husband could baptize him when he turns 8 because he will hold the Priesthood by then. I am so excited for them... she doesn't even own a Bible so we have to bring her one tonight. She is so wonderful though... we also found some new areas that need to be tracted so we will hopefully be getting some sweet new investigators...

There was a really boring talk on Sunday and Tony our recent convert fell asleep and when he woke up he snorted really loud and made this buzzing sound! Everyone looked at him and he instantly pretended as though nothing had happened... it was soo funny! After Sacrament meeting was over he just busted out laughing... haha he is such a good kid...

Well I am still in Ocala... the only one who got transferred in our entire district was Elder Zabriskie who got replaced by Elder Porter as Huffs new companion...

Porter is sweet... he is a way funny guy. I am still with Bagley who has been doing a lot better. I am starting to figure out how to cheer him up when he gets down so we have been laughing a lot more this last week which is way good for him... He is always either happy or sad so we are working on making him happy. all the time...

Anyways I love you all and we are going to be working our tails off this week we still have about 70 baptisms to go to reach 1050 for the year so President wants us to get them all before the 17th which is the Mission Conference...
So keep praying for us love you all.

November 23, 2009

Sorry it's just really hard to come back to the apartment because we bike
so far away.  I will try to do better.
We get our transfer calls today.. and we are leaving to our new areas
tomorrow... so I will have Liz call you tomorrow night with my new address
if I get transfered... but I hope I stay this is a good area.
You need to send me some pictures of the house.  I can't picture it
yellow.
I think you should be sending me more of those newspaper clippings of the
Suns.   I want to know what's going on.
Also I was hoping that you could send me all of the Christmas cds from my
cd case it is almost Christmas time and I'm ready to listen to something
different..
Well Elder Bagley is meeting with the area dr. today to talk about his
depression so we will see how things go. I hope he turns out ok I don't
want him to have to go home but we will see.
If I stay we will be going to a members house for Thanksgiving.  They are
going to be making 30 pies I am stoked but that is only if I stay here in
Ocala...
Elder Huff thinks he might be leaving which I hope he is wrong cuz that
wouldn't be as much fun.
But wherever the Lord wants me to go.
We have a couple people we are working with but none of which are really
progressing... Tony the young man who got baptized last week actually
asked me to help him pay tithing yesterday which was sweet... such a cool
kid.... anyways sorry I don't have more to say but its starting to get
cold and I am excited to go out and work again... love you all.

November 16, 2009

Well, we got tony confirmed... he is such a cool kid he wants to go on a
mission and everything. I will be sending pictures home soon.
It was a good week. We met a woman named Ursulla Tracting and she was
balling as we told her about the restoration she has already read from the Book of Mormon
and she believes it's true she will be getting baptized the
weekend of Thanksgiving.
She is a sweet lady in her 60's and she wasn't able to come to church on
sunday but she stayed home reading the Book of Mormon..
It was sweet.
We also found a girl who has a family of 9. She isn't as interested but she
promised she would read and pray about it all.
We had President interviews on Friday. Mine were good like normal but Elder
Bagleys weren't... President said that Bagley has depression problems and
he might have to go home for them... the area dr. will be coming up to see
him soon and see if he needs to go home or not... that would be sad.  Well,
this Saturday is transfer calls which is wierd cuz I feel like I just got
here.  I really hope I don't get transferred because I want to stay here. I love
this area so much...
Anyways, I love you all and I really hope that I will get some letters this
week.
take care.

November 9, 2009

Tony got baptized... the highlight of the week by far.  It was Elder
Bagley's first baptism and he was so excited... it was really funny. Tony
is such a cool kid though... he wants to go on a mission right now!  I hope
that he can keep his enthusiasm for it and keeps it going.
Well I haven't gotten any letters since I came to Ocala.  I got one from
Shannon and one from Mistie...I don't know how anybody is doing at all...
what is going on at home...
Anyways Bagley has been getting really sick... he has something wrong with
his brain and he is getting migranes and he might have to go in for a
catscan or something soon... I hope he doesn't because it will probably
take forever... but his health is just as important as the work we do so
we will see...
i think he might have a little bit of depression problems as well.
Anyways I love you all and I hope that everyone is doing good we are
hoping to have a couple more baptisms lined up for the 22nd so keep your
prayers coming.

November 2, 2009

So this area is so incredible I feel like this is just where I needed to
be.  We couldn't get most of our baptismal dates to church this week,  but
we found a new kid named Tony who is 18 and we taught him the restoration
and the plan of salvation and he is excited to get baptized!  The only
problem is he is kinda an odd kid and doesn't have any friends and feels
really awkward around all of the (white) members of the ward.  He wouldn’t
leave my side on Sunday.  But we are going to go over there with one of
the Priests who is a really good guy this week and get Tony to come to
thier campout this weekend... he is so sweet... we are going to baptize
him on Sunday after church... Elder Bagley will do it because he hasn't
baptized anybody....

Bagley and Mcrae were teaching somebody named Matt who is getting married
to a member named Bridgett.  And Mcrae figured that he already knew
everything about the gospel so he didn't bother teaching him.  He would
just go over and hang out instead of teaching... which is very bad for a
missionary to do... President Hinkley said that we need to not be friends
with the people we are teaching but be guides for them...  anyways Matt
said that he didn't want to be baptized... and they stopped meeting with
him... Saturday we were going to see some recent converts and I saw a
woman walking to her car and I felt inspired to go talk to her, it turns
out it was Bridgette.   So she told us about how she is planning her
wedding and Matt and her will be getting married in December.... I told
her to pray about Matts heart being softened so he would decide to get
baptized... Meanwhile Matt was at work and he got overcome by the spirit
and sent Elder Bagley and email requesting us to come back.  He declared
that he wants to be Bridgetts priesthood holder... hahaha how freakin
sweet is that.... We are going over tonight to meet with them... and we
are going to teach the Doctrine of Christ by the power of God... not make
friends and chat... hahaha so pray.
I got the package you sent Mom.
It was sent to the wrong address but somehow it got to the office of our
complex and the manager came into our apartment and put it on the counter
and locked the door on the way out... which caused a problem... there are
a lot of comps that live right next to us so we don't lock our door and we
don't carry keys with us so Elder Huff and Zabriskie called us at like 845
cuz they had just got home and asked if we locked the door cuz they were
locked out, anyways since it was so late we had to break in... it was
kinda funny.
Anyways keep praying for missionary opportunities and help to bring about
the second coming... I love you all.

October 26, 2009

so this week was really looong... Tuesday we had a really good day we taught alot of lessons and found a lot of new investigators...
Wednesday we had district meeting and then the Wednesday night class in the afternoon that I had to teach so we didn't get a lot done just a couple of hours to get everyone to come to the class.
Thursday was incredible though... at the beginning of the week we received a commitment from the aps to choose one day a week and teach 200 people and commit them all to be baptized... we chose Thursday.. so we went to the mall and went contacting there... it was so sweet I have never been more exhausted in my entire life than I was that night... we split up at the mall and I was running from person to person in the parking lot and in stores to teach, all the while we were dodging the police who we knew would kick us out if they had the opportunity.
It was sweet.... Elder Bagley found a girl named Cece who has been to church multiple times and wants to get baptized but he didn't get any of her information so now we have to find her again but it was a miracle none the less... we also set baptismal dates with: Tom, Don, Tillman, Vickie, Shani, Gladys, Coon, Johnny, and Johnie Mae.
Haha it was crazy we just made it though, we taught 204 lessons but we didn't quite get the baptismal invites but we still got really close...
Anyways that wonderful week kinda ended bad when none of those people came to church... but Elder Uchtdorf said that its when you keep doing what you have been told that you see miracles not at the beginning so we are going to do the same thing this week and we are going to see more miracles... everybody pray that I don't pass out cuz we are going to have to juggle one day with 200 lessons while trying to contact all of the 29 new investigators we found last week....
Anyways I love you all so much I hope to hear from you soon.
>

October 19, 2009

**NOTE FROM MOM.....I am doing something different with Trevon's letter this week....I hope you will bear with me......I sent him a list of 20 questions that I wanted him to forward to me and change the answers hoping I would get more infor from him. I will send his letter first, and then try to paraphrase the answers to the questions.

Hi everyone.....
So, I am in Ocala , Florida. It is one of the most popular hose breeding towns in the State. apparently there are only 2 other cities that make horses as fast as the one here.....
I am living in a four man with Elder Huff and Zabriskie. Huff is sweet. He is one of my favorite missionaries in the field....
I really like my companion. He is Elder Bagley and he has been out for 3 months and he is from Idaho. We get along really well, and have a lot of fun. We have been working really hard and this week we are hoping to get some people baptized.....we don't have anybody planned yet, but we will see.....
The day we got here we found an old woman named Bernie ....she is probably in her 70's. We taught her our first and she would not accept being baptized but she said we could come back......anyways we came back on Saturday night and she prayed about Joseph , the Book of Mormon and getting baptized....and she feels that it is all true, but she still won't set a date.....she couldn't
come to church this weekend, but she said she will try next week. We have to get her some fellowship this week. We have a huge list of part member families tat we are going to see this week, and hopefully baptize their kids. We will see . Just pray that the hearts of the parents will be softened.
Anyways I love you, and hope to hear from you soon.

Questions:
Address: 2215 SE 14th Ave. #56
Ocala, FL. 34471

My apartment is: A DUMP! It has a lot of crap in it. the missionaries just moved so we have two apartments worth of junk inside.
It has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and we share with two other missionaries.
My companion was a farmer, and he played basketball. We get along real well.
My trial in this area will be: Ocala has a lot of really big hills.....its exhausting!
We are on bike! Did I say its exhausting?
I did see Elder Cox from Gilbert last week at transfers.....he was not familiar to me.
The most exciting thing about my new area is: I am totally in the country! Its beautiful!
We live: right next to the church.
The area is: Normal....not real rich and not poor. John Travolta lives in our area. He is friends with a lot of members. I hope I get to meet him. I will teach him if I can. Apparantly he came to church and the Ward freaked out, and many came up and asked for his autograph. It offended him, he just wanted to be normal and be there.
There is a FIREHOUSE SUBS HERE< ......Wooooo!
My back is doing better as long as I wear my brace.
I wear my brace always!
Elder Bagley has been in this area for 1 transfer.
The best thing I can say about the weather now is: It jut got really cold. The other day the high was 89 degrees, and then the next day it was 70. It was nuts. It will be cooler in this area this winter than what I had last winter.

Then another one:
He mom, I was hoping you could send me a Kamel Back. I don't want to buy one, cuz I can't get a good one, but I just want one that is really small that can hold a bladder and has a net on the outside, that I can slide my Book of Mormon into for easy transportation. My backpack is too big to carry over all of these ridicilous hills!
I love you mom!

October 12, 2009

Howdy...
So, I am getting transferred and I am not disappointed. I have tracted this whole area twice now... it will be nice to get a change... We are going to hopefully set up a family baptism for the next Elders that replace us... as soon as we leave. We had a really good lesson with the Sullivan's... I don't know if I have told y'all about them... Kevin Sullivan is one of the nicest guys in Florida and he loves Christ and absolutely adores his family of 6. The Sister missionaries used to teach him and I have met with him a couple of times to no avail... but last night we went to his house and played Elder Holland's talk for him... the one from last conference that talks about the atonement and then we bore very powerful testimony about the Book of Mormon and he promised us he would read Mosiah 4-5 before I leave on Thursday... so we will be going over on Wednesday night to see how it went... so keep Kevin in your prayers this week because prayers work... and he could definitely use them...

We also had a woman named Jennifer move into the ward area with her 9- yr old son Tristian who were being taught and want to get baptized. I'm kinda disappointed I won't be here for it.. but I am happy nonetheless.

Anyways today we are going mini golfing I am excited! That will be fun and I probably can't hurt myself doing that.. so mom you can rest easy today...

> Love you all I will send my new address next week.

September 28, 2009

So I got a back brace and I have to wear it everyday and it really helps alot. It takes away almost all my pain... I am not wearing it now but I will probably put it on before we go on with the day. We will head home from the library and then we are going to the mall. there is a dog store at the mall and you can like play with all the dogs... its probably my favorite thing to do in this area... hahaha

So this week Elder Chadwick and I decided that we are going to baptize somebody. I haven't had a baptism in months... we don't know who we will baptize we will give Chris and Aimee another try but I'm not overly hopeful. I am just expecting the Lord to prepare someone we tract into.... if we find womeone who has already been to church then we have no problem...

Conference is this weekend I am so excited... its been so long...

Anyways I am going to cut this letter short but I am attaching a story called the room that you might or might not have heard before but its incredible.. so I love you and I hope you like the story
Trevon

Monday, September 21, 2009

So I just typed the message and I lost it so this one will probably be shorter than the other one... I have Spondylolisis! That is what is wrong with my back... it means that my l-5 vertibrae is fractured... So what the Dr. I went to said was wrong...
Elder Woolsey the mission area Dr. went to a bunch of specialists in sports medicine and back pain and that is what they came up with...
The good news is I won't be coming home! The bad news is I have to live with the pain forever. Elder Woolsey said that I have two choices. I can complain about it or I can pretend it doesn't hurt...

So I decided I am going to endure and not let the pain get to me... cuz if i do Satan wins... besides its not so bad :)
Anyways I am sorry its such a short message but I love you all.

Monday, September 14, 2009

I still haven't sent the tape I am sorry...I didn't have a package for it when I went to send it.... and we didn't have the car... but we have the car this week so I will go and get a package and send it tomorrow when we are coming home from zone conference.
Sorry.
Anyways this week was kinda slow. I had my Dr. appointment for my back and apparently one of my vertebrae, my lowest one, thinks that it is part of my tail bone so my whole life it has been growing the wrong way. Ha I knew it was a problem with the bone when it first hurt but no all the "professionals" said it was a dislodged disk. I'm right ...they're wrong.. haha.. just kidding anyways I am meeting with the area Dr. on Wednesday at the mission office. But don't worry about me if there is a serious problem I'm sure President will give you a call... I will be fine... just keep my deformed vertebrae in your prayers... haha... Anyways we went on a trade off with the zone leaders on Saturday and Elder Chadwick and Call set a baptismal date with a Muslim for the 27th... haha i haven't baptized a Muslim yet that should be fun. Leo has to have his baptism postponed because he and his mom were both sick... we have Stake Conference on Sunday and President will be speaking that will be sweet.. and then only a couple more weeks for General Conference.... so exciting...
Anyways I don't have a lot more to talk about.. I heard that ASU won and the Cardinals lost... too bad. I am still not convinced to be a Cardinals fan... maybe it would be different if I was home to watch their season... but when all I hear is they made it to the Superbowl I just imagine a fluke.... anyways love you all.

Monday, September 7, 2009

So this week was fun... haha we had transfers... so we were with Elder Shirts the whole week because Elder Adams went home... that's why it took me so long to finish the tape and send that.... but it should be coming soon.
On Monday we went to St. Augustine and we had fun! I got to see Liz... she made me cookies. Haha but that's all good... Don was working so we weren't able to see him...
Tuesday and Wednesday were hectic because we had to cover two areas... Elder Shirts and mine... transfers came and went. Elder Fetty replaced Adams. He is kinda cool.
We have been finding a lot of cool people. We are hopefully going to be baptizing a boy named Leo on Sunday. The tape has a lot more information about him. He is sweet and obsessed with the Book of Mormon. He loves it!
I also found this guy named Jerom when I was on a trade off with a member... he was really humble and he will be getting baptized on the 20th if we can get a hold of him... he is never home ...but pretty sweet none the less.
I heard that ASU blew away Idaho State.
Anyways I hope to hear from y'all. I love ya... were fixing to go to the church and play some non-competitive basketball.

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Sorry it took so long to write today. We went to St. Augustine and we just got back. It was so much fun. We went to Ripley's again and I got to go and see Liz. Don was working so he couldn't be there... anyways, I have been working on a tape to send home and it should be done this week. I will probably be sending it on Wednesday so everything that has been happening is on that tape, so other than that I don't really have anything to say...
But I love you all...I am not getting transferred and will be in Mandarin at least 6 more weeks.. love you.

Mom asked if he got his Pizza.....his answer: ya i got it it was soo good... that was one of the best pizzas ever.... I loved it! Was it bufalo chicken? That's what it tasted like.

August 24, 2009

**Note from Mom**

I just got off the phone from with a Sister Clark from St. Augustine. Trevon baptized her husband about a year ago, and they are now preparing to go to the Temple. That is what Trevon has been praying for, that he will be able to attend the temple and see them sealed before he goes home. She reports that they are starting the Temple prep classes this week.
Her big message from Trevon was that he wants me to "order me a PIZZA!' So that is taken care of and should be delivered tonight at 8:00. She reports that he is kind of discouraged with the area he is in now.....(too many rich people that are not wanting to change their lives) Anyway, I am sure this would be a good week for a letter from family members and friends.
Sister Clark's husband is a former minister.....and she says the adversary is really working on him. But two of the comments she made that she and her husband both said....they have had many missionaries through the years and she says "your son is truly on fire for the Lord." and that he really knew his scriptures, and has really learned that he likes studying religion.
He had also told her to tell me that he really misses his family right now, (especially his mom....ha ha)
Anyway, it sounds like the computer situation is not dependable, so why don't you all send him a little note this week!
Love ya all.....Mom

August 24th, 2009

Hello... this will probably be a short letter I don't have al ot to write...

We have been having a really hard time our teaching pool is pretty much empty and my back has been acting up this last week... so tracting was a pain in the BACK!!!! Haha I talked to Sister Newman yesterday at Church and missionary medical can't cover chiropractic, but I'm not even sure if that's what I need... so she is looking around to see if their are any members in the area that can help me out.. I really hope so cuz we are back on bike this week and I am pretty scared for it... but it will all be good.

Chris and Aimee are not doing good at all... they wanted to push the wedding off to March and now Chris thinks that Aimee is cheating on him... so its not a good situation at all.

I have been pretty discouraged lately but I called Don and Liz last night (my first baptism ) and that was so encouraging to see how good they are doing... they started a Temple Prep class this last week so they should be able to go in a couple months... hopefully I will be able to go with them.

Anyways I am sorry I don't have more to say. The power has been going out here so I want to get this sent as soon as possible I have been kicked off twice already love you all.

August 17th, 2009

So this week was pretty slow... we had trade offs with the Zone leaders and Elder Garnette and I got the cops called on us. It was pretty funny... we were tracting this really ghetto apartment complex and we were talking to these two girls outside thier apartment for a long time. They were pretty interested and then this Hispanic guy that was a worker for the complex, janitor or something, came up and yelled in broken English "you can't be here. You have 5 minutes to get off property" I answered back "we will leave when we are done talking to these girls" and he yelled "I am calling the police" and he pulled his phone out and without pushing any buttons on it or anything he yelled into it "call the police" so it was kind of an empty threat so we just ignored him and kept teaching . So he went and got the manager and she came over and told us we had to leave as soon as we were done teaching those girls and Elder Garnette said "that's what we said we were going to do he just wasn't listening" and then the Hispanic guy started yelling and cussing like crazy... he was good at cussing ...you could actually understand him... anyways then we left and that was about it...

On Thursday we had zone conference... it was pretty good ....the lunch was great... we had President interviews afterwards and so did 14 other missionaries so we were there waiting to get into our interviews for about 4 hours... but it was good. It was the most unprofessional interview I have ever had with President . We just talked and joked about the mission and the members and stuff... he told me that the Mandarin 1st ward bishop is his home teacher and he asked President how he can afford to put his best missionary in Mandarin 2nd and President thought he meant Elder Probert so he started talking about the plans he had for Probert but Bishop said "no, I am talking about Elder Rogers." That made me feel good...

Chris and Aimee went out of town for the weekend and they have been talking about moving their wedding to March... I am pretty upset about it. We are going to set up another appointment with Bishop for them and hopefully he can move things up...

Anyways I got the cd...and I loved it I almost started crying in the first track because it was all of the little people singing to me and their voices are all so different... especially Kailin and Anna... I was really impressed... Jakob is doing so good on the piano! I loved their song! I miss all those little guys! Midget!
I will make a tape back and send it soon I will start on it tonight.
love you all. Love those letters....keep them coming!

August 10, 2009

So this week not a lot happened.. but we had some fun anyways... we pretty much just tracted all week. The highlight of the week was Chris and Aimee decided not to wait to get married all the way to September... they changed their minds and they will do a small wedding and then a ring ceremony later... I am pretty happy about that... all we are waiting on is Chris to buy a wedding band and propose. So they could be getting married and baptized this weekend.. it could be an awesome week... They also have to stop smoking though that will be a battle. We need to go over all their hold ups with them this week...

We have zone conference on Thursday and President interviews right afterwards... I am excited it has been a long time since I have had interviews...

Pete and PJ are moving tomorrow so we are with the other Mandarin Elders today at the library by their house, we will probably be going to the library from now on even though it is a lot of miles... and they will be taking care of our laundry for us from now on. thank goodness.. we would have had to pay...

So on Thursday I think it was, we found a raccoon at our apartment and I wanted to see if I could feed it so I pulled out some tick tacks and tossed one to it ..then put one in my hand and it ate the first tick tack and then came and ate the second one out of my hand... immediately I ran home and got some tortillas and my camera and I just sat outside against a wall and held out a tortilla and the raccoon came up to me and took it right out of my hand again... and again... and again.

After a while we decided to name him Bruce after Bruce Willis who plays a raccoon in Over the Hedge... Bruce really liked me, he started climbing all over me and when I didn't have a piece of bread to give him he would nudge my arm with his nose until I got him one... he ended up stealing the bag of tortillas but they fell out before he could eat any and I recovered it... it was hilarious I took some pictures and made some videos so I will send some in a letter right after this one... they are downloading to my flash drive as we speak...

Anyways not a lot else has happened, Pete gave me all of his old mission suits... so now I have like 9 suits so I will have to leave some behind... don't worry mom I am going to keep the ones that I brought out with me. but I got a really nice light gray one and another one that looks similar but it is a trench coat style I have some pictures that I will send as well of me modeling the jackets....
I love you all and I hope to hear from you soon.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Note from Mom:

This letter kind of makes me nervous! Sometime moms don't like to know some of these details.....

So on Tuesday we had District Meeting. Our Zone Leader came and told us a story that the night before he got a call from a member that they were trying to reactivate. She was getting attacked while he was on the phone with her! He was talking about how we are not just missionaries but we are literally soldiers at war with Satan and everybody we don't bring to Christ can effect hundreds of others. It was pretty inspirational and it got us to go out wand work alright. Not a lot happened until the weekend though... we got a couple people to come to our Wednesday night class, which was pretty exciting... but on Saturday we went out tracting and we found a couple of promising investigators: including Amanda who i was teaching when I first got to Mandarin when I was in the other half of ithe area... we were teaching her but she moved and lost all our information so we couldn't get in contact with her... but she has gone to the Dunn ave. Ward a couple of times since we last saw her. And she took it as a sign that I happened to tract into her again... we are setting up an appointment with her tonight and will hopefully be able to meet with her tomorrow.

And on Sunday morning we got a call at 4 am. It was Robert Simmons a recent convert in the ward and he said that there were some people after him who wanted to kill him!
It was pretty unnerving... he told me the whole story and I think he was imagining things a little bit.. but he told me that he was high so I told him to come over and he stayed the rest of the night at our house because he was too scared to go home. So I talked with him for a while to calm him down then I made him get showered and take some of my clothes and sent him to church so he could go to Mandarin 1st ward Sacrament meeting while I was getting ready for my ward... then we had our meetings before church and Robert called again. This time he was at work and the people he had been with the night before had come and broke into his car so he got the day off and came to church so he wouldn't be alone... the Elders Quorum president and I went for a long drive with him and talked about what he was going to do next. We came back to the church and talked with the 1st councelor and decided he needed to call the cops. So we called the cops and they came here and talked with him and we got it kinda sorted out. Today he is going to change his phone number and hopefully get moved out and into a new apartment. That way they won't be able to find him. It was a pretty intense day and I was so exhausted I went to sleep right after getting done planning and eating.
Anyways we aren't doing anything today... probably take another nap.I am really tired.
Anyways love you all lots thanks for all the letters I got this week. hope to hear from you soon.