Missionary Mail!
Missionary Mail!
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Elder Noah Larsen:
Nicaragua Managua North Mission
9/14/26
Yoo whats up yall! Hopefully it was an awesome week!
Alright so a text got sent to our mission group chat saying that we need to be home at 8:30 for a quick meeting about the new temple thats going to open. (So I read the message so wrong because it was only meant for the sisters... hehe oops) but thank goodness I did read it wrong because right when we got home I put the key in the padlock to open our door and the key turned frictionless.... friiiiikkkk. And then i read presidents message again and saw only the sisters were supposed to go home for the meeting... double friiiiiikkkkkk. And we had time to go out and do one more visit but we had to figure out the lock situation. Luckly we have made best friends with our neighbors by buying Ramen from them every day because its cheaper than the store. So he came over with a hammer and a chisel and spent 20 minutes absolutely obliterating our lock. Somehow the same guy sold us a new lock for a solid $1.75. Don't worry mom... im pretty sure that lock will hold...
Spiritual thought:
Ive been reading this little book that my mom sent me called Believing Christ. Holy moly its actually amazing. Because from all of the different people ive talked to, from other missionaries, to members, friends, almost everyone. We all feel like the atonement works for everyone else except for ourselves. #guilty🖐. Ive thought the same thing. But this book explains the difference in believing IN Christ vs. BELIEVING Christ. Everyone believes in Christ. Son of God, did the atonement, paid for our sins. But we dont necessary BELIEVE him when he said he can make us clean. That was my testimony growing experience this week. I belive Christ. I am pure every time I turn to him to change me for the better. Jesus is my friend. I love him and I am sooo grateful for the atonement. Hurra por Israel 🤘
Love yall! Have an awesome week!!
-Elder Noah Larsen
Elder Max Martineau:
Arizona Mesa Mission
9/14/26
What's good everybody?! Just a quick update this week. I am alive and well. The work is moving along.
I now have my brand new comp. He's awesome. We get along very well. He's from Alabama and loves college football. He loves Texas Longhorns though because he grew up there. We have a lot of things in common so it's been a blast.
The weather has cooled off to upper 90s which has been very wonderful. I might even see some rain this week. Bless up.
Makenzie got baptized on Sunday! I wasn't able to attend the baptism in person but thanks to technology I got to watch it on zoom and it was still amazing. I'm so grateful I was able to be apart of teaching her.
Tennessee won.
Church is true.
Book is blue.
Jesus loves you.
Have a good week. Sorry I'm sending this late. It's been a busy day. Love you all! I'll respond to emails next week
Elder Martineau
Elder Dashle Demill
Brazil Goiania Mission
8/31/26
You know you've got a problem with your weekly when you hit your year mark but still forget to write...
There's way too much to tell and not enough attention span to read it all, so we once again return to the list format:
One year stats:
- Areas in the field: 4
- Comps in the field: 3 Americans 🇺🇲, 3 Brazilians 🇧🇷, 1 Venezuelan 🇨🇴
- 3 branches, 1 ward
Congrats to 29-C and everyone else from our group, that's huge. I don't have much comment on hitting a year, except that I know I'm just barely getting started. If I thought this past year was full of miracles, I can't imagine what the next will be like...
Speaking of miracles, our area absolutely exploded this week. 8 friends came in-person to church and we now find ourselves with 7 people preparing to be baptized. Here are a few:
- Hélo had already been to church 4 times in another state, just didn't get baptized because he lost contact with the missionaries, so he found us through the church website and is now on date for the 20th!
- Marylia got engaged to a recent convert and decided she wants to be sealed in the temple someday - she'll be baptized this Sunday
- We got a media request from Clêu, and after visiting her she came to church and brought her whole family! After church we put them all on date for the 13th
Other highlights:
- Got egged and floured on the 25th by the other elders
- Sunburnt to a crisp after playing soccer for 4 hours
- Comp once again died out on the street
- Had noite de completos with a member from Ecuador, shoutout to my sister and all the other Chilean missionaries, these things are the real deal
- Celebrated my comp's birthday
- Had a dance/theater/missionary/dinner activity at the church
- Got completely blocked on WhatsApp for the first time in this area
- Had 11 lessons in one day
Spiritual thought:
The funny thing about experiencing so many miracles is that it is an extremely humbling experience. Seems a bit turned around, right? But we soon realize that it was never ever our own efforts that brought these people to Christ, but it was in fact the hand of our Heavenly Father. This is not to deny the value of our own efforts - but we must understand that we can do nothing without Him who sent us.
Moses explained it best:
"Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed." (Moses 1:10)
As Brad Wilcox has pointed out (I'll leave his talk below), this is not to say that man is worthless. We know quite clearly that we are of infinite value to our Heavenly Father. Rather, it is to say that we are powerless without Him. He is the source of all that is good, and we are to rely on Him throughout the journey - not just look forward to His embrace at the very end, all the while trudging along hoping that the painful part will be over soon. Don't think that we must earn grace, Christ's eternal power. Rather than a reward it is more like the enabling tool we use to obtain that great eternal joy which we have been promised. Rely and put your trust in Him, for He is our strength.
My new year's resolution is the weekly, so... see you next week!
- Elder DeMill
Sister Emilie Figlioli
Tennessee Knoxville Mission
9/14/26
Hello hello everyone!!
Hope y'all have had an amazing week! I'd love to hear about it if youve got the time! But keep me updated on all the things happening because i honestly don't remember much about my week but I'll try to recap it!
So me and my 2 lovely comps had 15-20 minutes left of the night before heading home. So we stopped at a store next to our house to invite everyone before it closed and so my comp could get ice cream. It was pretty empty but i did see one guy so we went to go invite him. He was very kind and said he grew up with friends apart of our faith!
Well long story short, he then goes on to bash us for like 20 minutes. My poor companions have never experienced much of a bashing. Let alone, the deepest one I've ever had. We finally tell him to have a good night. We left to go find some ice cream for my comp. Turns out the store didn't even have it! So we go to head home and in our way out, the guy followed us to apologize and then continues to bash us for another 10 minutes. Definitley not my favorite but hey, catch him in the spirit world
Highs:
- zone conference
- got to see the Canova
- ran a 5k on Monday and got to sister wallis
- Random guy paid for our polar pops
- finally rained!!!!
Lows:
- bro bashed harddddd
- could barely walk for a day because i was so sore
Randos:
- spoke in church yesterday
- helped a random member find her stolen purse at Walmart
Spiritual:
This week was super good! I had a lot of opportunities this week that i wouldn't have had if i wasn't on a mission. But i have felt nothing but blessed this week. Its been amazing to see the Lord's hand in my life every single day!! I'd invite all of you to do the same. Look for how God has blessed you everyday in your life?
I love yall so much and hope you have the best week! God loves you so much! Reach out if yall need anything!
Sister Fifi
Sister Figlioli
Elder Ben Brimhall
Philippines San Pablo Mission
8/24/26
Hello po family and friends
here are a few highlights from the past week
Monday it was P-day. It was nice to prepare for the week and have down time.
Tuesday I got to go to the Alabang temple with some of the missionaries in my zone, it was an amazing experience.
Wednesday we got to meet elder and sister shamuway over zoom. They are such wonderful people, they will be a part of the Lipa mission presidency and get to meet them in person this Wednesday.
Thursday we had exchanges, I was with Elder Velila. He is an awesome missionary, he is very good at teaching and we found many new people.
Friday I had an in field mentoring session, our Trainor taught us to rely more on the scriptures, as they are a platform for the spirit to teach from.
Saturday we met a lot of new people in Southville, many seem interested and am excited to return and teach more of them.
Sunday what a miracle we had around 60 people at sacrament meeting, there were many faces that had not been at church much. It was so awesome to see them there.
I want to share this was a talk titled, “All Who Have Endured Valiantly” by, Elder David A. Bednar, he talks about Enduring to the end, and invites us to consider a high and holier way to consider enduring to the end. I love this quote:
“Enduring to the end is linked inextricably to the spiritual gift of charity. Enduring to the end is not merely a relentless determination to grit our teeth, hold on to the limits of our physical strength and mental capacity, and push through the challenges and adversities of mortal life; it is so much more than that.
Enduring to the end is the joyous quest of a lifetime—pressing forward with faith in Jesus Christ in a gradual process of trusting in and receiving help from our Savior to become more like Him. As our love for Him grows ever stronger and deeper, we can be blessed to receive spiritual perspective, the Lord’s empowering grace, and exceedingly great and indescribable joy.”
This principle has been changing my mission experience as I try to recognize and treat people as they truly are, children of a father in heaven, I feel his love ever more in my life and things that used to be exhausting or challenging becomes easier or enjoyable.
I know that living the gospel of Jesus Christ is where the most joy is found. I know that enduring to the end can be full of joy, and I hope you all can find joy in life even despite the difficult times and remember what matters most. Ingat po!
Elder Brimhall
Sister Eliza Treu
New Zealand Auckland Mission
9/6/26
Kia Ora Everyone! This week was crazy busy!! Our mission has had a steady decrease in sacrament attendance, so we were challenged by president and sister Mackie to up our sacrament numbers! The district with the largest increase in sacrament attendance gets treated to lunch with the Mackies!! We worked HARD in the Waitekere Vineyard! We spent a whole day visiting our friends and people who are interested in the church and we invited them to church in person! We made 2 new friends that day, and we didnt knock a single door that didn't answer and have a meaningful conversation with us. That whole day was filled with miracles, and I know God aligned the stars for us all day. We invited 28 people to sacrament by the end of the day!
-On sunday, we had 5 friends come to sacrament, which was much lower than we were hoping, but I know our efforts are not wasted! We made a difference whether they came or not, and i know god will deliver them when the time is right!
-We also got to do more service for our sweet friend Ratna! We'll be helping her out again this week!
-We had dinner at a Member's house, and she made a classic Ethiopian meal for us! I took a big bite and WOW it was SO SPICY . I wanted to be polite, so I kept eating, but after 10 minutes, she interrupted the conversation and said "sister! Is it spicy?" I responded and said, "what gave it away??" I was sweating and my eyes were watery, and im sure I was bright red. She grabbed me a large glass of Mountain Dew and said ,"drink this! It will help!" And for those of you who don't know, carbonation make spicy become SPICYYY. I politely declined and asked for water
-On sunday we also got to go to a ward baptism for this sweet girl named Leia who we helped teach!! The spirit was soso strong and im so glad we were able to go! She and her family are just the best!
My spiritual thought has to do with our sacrament attendance this week and the title of the email!
We worked hard to invite people to sacrament, and every prayer we said was for our sacrament goal. I wanted so badly to get more people there to feel Christ's love for them, so I'll admit, I was disappointed when our numbers were so low. I expressed this to sister hepworth while we waited for our bus after church, and she turned to me and said, "what more could we have done for our vineyard?"
She was referring to Jacob 5:47—
"But what could I have done more in my vineyard? Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long."
Sometimes we do all that we can, but people are given agency for a reason! And sometimes in the end, your fate is up to the agency of someone else. However, YOUR EFFORTS ARE NOT VAIN! People rejected even the savior himself, he asked the same questions we do every day! "What more could I have done?" But that didn't stop him! Keep going! Keep moving! You've GOT THIS!! I love you all soso much!!
Love, Sister speaksthingsthatareTREU
-Sister Treu
Email: eliza.treu@missionary.org
Sister Ellie Baugh
Brazil Ribeirao Preto Mission
Sister Baugh will begin her missionary service on June 3
9/14/26
9/14/26
Spiritual Thought (music edition)
Spiritual Thought (music edition)
Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus (tabernacle choir )
Proverbs 3: 5-6
5 ¶ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
What was Sister Baugh up to?
Knock knock
“Quem É”
Somos as….. “ahh são as meninas da igreja”
Well I'll take that as an accomplishment that our friends we teach definitely aren't being deprived of us trying to contact them!!
Half wayyy through the transfer!
Seguinda- PDAYY and Went to one of the Biggest malls in south america, ( thats what everyone in jardionopolis told us, don't fact check me, i like to think it was the biggest) I felt like a country girl going to the Big city it was awesome.
New friend Kaylene: Kaylene is 23 and has the cutest 4 year old daughter EVER! We met kaylene through one of our friends Luzia. Kaylene has a turtle, Bird, and 3 horses, she is an incredible mom, and she has the best garden! But what i love most about her is she puts in EFFORT, she came to CHURCH this week ( first week finding her) So pray for kaylene this week!
update on familia: Oh man familia! We visted them and talked about baptism again this week. The family says they need more time, they want to visit the church some more….. Sunday comes….. and No family at church and no responding to our phone calls.
The Circus came to Jardionopolis!! This guy in the middle of the park , juggling king and unicycle king, but best part…. his dance moves! Ahhh Cunha and I never felt more giddy and proud to live in a town called Jardionopolis.
We had Divisions this week! I stayed in Jardionopolis and Cunha went to Franca…. It rained MESMO, we were soaking wet, but miraculously still hit all our goals!
I got approval to do Backflips!! Morning routine Runnnnn ( Brasilian portugues youth album is fire, elder media took music away so I'm back to whats on the gospel library app)....... 12 Back tucks, finish with an ab workout. All this in 30 minutes i probably look like the circus, but it never felt so good to be able to do backflip. Thank you presidente!
Saw a Tucano! And held Kaylene's Bird!
Lots of ninguém en casa, lots of cutting this week, but tadinhas still got 3 more weeks to finish this transfer strong! #wegotthis
Tchau Beijos!
Sister Ellie Baugh
Elder Zach Johnson
Brazil Sao Paulo East Mission
Elder Johnson will begin his missionary service on June 11
9/14/26
Yo wattsup?! So this email is gonna be crazy short because im lowkey lazy and not much happened, but here's a funny story and a spiritual thought!! Just know that as far as friends in the mission goes, we found no one new this week 😂
So on saturday we were walking on the street, and someone wanted help carrying groceries to his house because he cant walk well. So we helped him walk up a crazy steep hill, and past a busy street. Here in Brazil sometimes they dont have crosswalk, so we had to just kind of wing it. So we waited for no more cars, and started crossing the intersection. Well a big old bus came along, and stopped right in front of us. The guy we were walking with just started screaming AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE LEAVE!!!!! And afterwards the bus left and we made it across 😂😂😂 lowkey so incredibly funny, but also absolutely terrifying.
So for today's spiritual thought, I just want to say that I am so grateful for what I have. Im grateful for my mission, my family, my friends, each and every one of you guys, and so much more. God gives us so many blessings, and when we figure out how to truly look at what he gives us, our lives will change forever. This is what I learned this week, and because I have been focusing on the good, my week was the best week of mg mission so far. I am so incredibly grateful for all God has given me, and I know that if we all focus on what he gives us and not what we want or dont have, we will recieve joy, love, and so many more blessings from heaven. Until next week, count your many blessings and have a great week!!!
-Elder Zachary Johnson
znjohnson@missionary.org
Elder Jack Dunford
Jamaica Kingston Mission
Elder Dunford will begin his missionary service on August 5th
Elder Lincoln Pearson
France Paris Mission
Burton Ward Service Missionaries
Brother & Sister Thompson
Wasatch Front Service Mission
Brother & Sister McSwain
Utah Layton Mission
Brother & Sister Halls
Family History Center Service Missionaries
Behind me are all my ancestors giving me strength. Life passed through them to me. And in honor of them... I will live it fully!
See more on Burton Ward family history happenings HERE.
We serve as missionaries at the Family Search Center in Layton and we try to assist people as they come to the center. The people who come ask for help in a wide variety of ways; from setting up a password for familysearch.org to helping find an ancestor in Germany in the 1800’s.
The veil seems thin as we receive inspiration from those on the other side as we work. We also are in the temple each Tuesday morning. So blending research and then being at the temple where individuals and families receive their ordinances is so fulfilling to us. We know we are helping to gather Israel.
Love,
Brother & Sister Halls
Sister Angie Cottrell
FamilySearch VROC (Virtual Records Operation Center) Service Mission
I am currently serving in the FamilySearch VROC (Virtual Records Operation Center) Mission. I just completed my first year and recently extended for another six months. I love the flexibility of this mission. I am able to work from home and set my own schedule. I just have a minimum number of required hours to fulfill each week.
The objective of our mission is to “nourish the temple with names.” There are a variety of projects requiring various skill levels. Currently, I am working on a project to improve person pages on FamilySearch. Many pages lack the required dates and places needed to complete ordinances. I do my best to find sources, such as birth, death, or marriage records, and add this information to the FamilySearch tree. Relatives are then able to complete the temple work. I love when I find a record of a baby or child who was born and died between census years, so they were never included as part of the family. Knowing they can now be sealed to their parents is such a rewarding feeling.
Angie Cottrell
Sister Susan Tibbitts
Family Search Data Service Mission
My service mission is the North America Family Search Support Mission. We answer English speaking email requests from all over the world. My specific duties in answering email requests are with reservation issues, 110 requests and Dead to Living requests. I am also on a special indexing project preparing records for AI to index. We are always having to learn new programs and methods which keeps me on my toes, and sometimes on my back side, but Heavenly Father always seems to pick me back up and help me learn what is expected of me. Dean and I started this mission in 2013. I love it and just keep extending one year at a time. I love how kind everyone is and how patient they are when I make mistakes. It is truly the environment I think the Savior created when He was here on earth.
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