First area! Springville Week 1

This week has gone awesome! I've met my new companion and his name is Elder Allen. He is awesome! I am learning so much from him and things are going great! The day I got assigned we received crazy news! our mission in July or something like that is splitting into the Utah, Provo mission and the Utah, Orem mission! It's crazy! I am loving it in this area. We have sooooo many people to teach. Some progressing, some not, but we still are working hard no matter what. The first day we arrived was great. I learned more about this place. We are teaching a lot of people who are financially not very well off. As well we are teaching a lot of people with word of wisdom problems. It's not my normal and for me it's not something I am fully comfortable with but with help from Heavenly Father I am able to do it and many of them are pretty close to reactivation or baptism, they just need to take that one struggle and overcome it. But I know that through the Lord anything is possible.

 We had a lot of cancellations one of the days and I feel it was to help humble me. It humbled me to let me know that I should not be so prideful, but allow the Savior to work in my life and allow the spirit to teach the lesson. I read in the scriptures how the great and spacious building is the pride of the world. and how it is the pride of the world that brings destruction of the people. I never really thought much about that until I read it. We have to be humble. The first step to anything is being humble and allowing our God and Savior help lead us where we need to be. Without humility, there's pride, and with pride brings the destruction of the people. We have to be humble and allow ourselves to follow the Lord and be obedient to the things he has commanded. I know that through humility brings obedience, and through obedience brings everlasting happiness. 

I love Christmas it is such a great joyous time of year! If you haven't seen "He is the Gift" on LDS.org, I invite you to watch, remember Christ's birth, and watch it as a family as you draw closer to your Savior together. I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS! Enjoy the time as family together. Our priorities should always go our Savior, your spouse (if you have one), your family, work, your calling, and then the church. When we do that the General Authorities have promised us happiness and blessings. 

This week has been great though. I've learned so much from Elder Allen and he truly is a fantastic trainer. We have worked hard and we, together, have taught about 55 lessons together. With this Christmas season though our lessons next week will be a little less, but we are still progressing the work. It has been rainy a lot today and apparently that's not to normal to get lots of rain and sunshine by now. So since people have said that the Lord made sure it snowed, today we are getting snow, and quite a lot of it. It's awesome and all except that me and Elder Allen don't have a vehicle. 

I'm so thankful I have had the opportunity to be doing the 12 days of Christmas with the family and Elder (Nick) Noad. It has been a fantastic time and everything I read has helped me to grow as a missionary and person. I love that I have the chance to still share something with my family for Christmas. We met a family with the last name Hable, they lived in Magrath and apparently she knew the Janisko's. It was neat to talk about Magrath and everything else. What a small world. 

Let us all remember that Christmas is about the birth of our Savior and families. Don't miss out on either of those. Catch that Christmas Spirit and take it with you into the new year. The Lord has blessed us with this time of year, let us take the time and spend time with our families and remember our Savior. Make this the best Christmas for you and your family.  Merry Christmas!

-Elder Noad

my name tags

in front of the Provo temple

Provo temple

picture a little girl made for the missionaries

our Christmas tree with my brother's name tag he gave me before I left

The missionaries here refer to this as the great and spacious building

I made it and it's great!

So the MTC has been amazing! I have my companion Elder Vineyard who loves to sing and loves technology so ya we don't have too much the same but it is alright I am enjoying being his companion. We also have another companionship with us in our residence and we all get along great! we have Elder Edwards and Elder Williams and he is from England. He is really funny! 

So the travelling went good, I found everywhere I was supposed to go and it all went good! though I didn't eat because I was worried I'd miss something haha so I really enjoyed the food when I got to the MTC. The food here is great and we are really busy constantly. We are late lots just because all our buildings are so far apart and things are just scheduled so closely, but we are doing alright with it all and haven't gotten in too much trouble. haha Oh well it is good and I am learning sooooo much here and feeling the spirit more than I have ever felt it in my life! It is soooo spiritual here! 

So the first day I showed up last and missed like all day so that was fun, but we also had a little activity where as a large group we learned to love people more and I did really good teaching and that's when I felt the spirit so strongly. On Thursday we had a lot of fun and learned a lot. We met a "Gold Name Tag" who are people who may or may not be a member depending on the person but we prayed to find one and looked and looked and couldn't find one. It wasn't until later when we found one and I knew prayers are answered. we set up an appointment with her for Friday so we were sooo excited! later that night we had our first Branch Presidency meeting and that went well. I got made District leader! So I like to say I went from being late to classes in the morning to becoming a District leader. haha so basically I have to pick up the mail and and lead District meetings and watch over the District so that is fun. On Friday we kept learning more just like always and I got to pick up the mail for the first time. Ya for a warning to anyone make sure you read ALL the directions  your given. I didn't read all of the directions and I was stuck doing the mailbox over and over like 10 times and everyone just watching me like who is this guy. Ya wasn't to fun lol. 

So we met with Rosie and I had to make a District companion switch because my companion had something so I took Elder Edwards. We talked with her and taught her and the spirit was so strong and completely led the lesson. It was so amazing! teaching people the gospel is my favorite part of the MTC! everything else is starting to get a little boring but we are all having a lot of fun. So we set up another appointment with her tomorrow so i am excited! We also did awful in a role play on this day and just wasn't very good. Oh well were getting better. On Saturday we just learned and learned and taught role plays that went much better. We met with members of the church who we could help and just talk with and we met one sister who was having trouble knowing what to do. So we helped her and it went well. We then met this guy who was Irish and his conversion story is soooooo amazing and was so spiritual it brought tears to my eyes. His testimony strengthened mine so much.On Sunday we had our MTC missionary thing and that went good. We then had leadership meetings and I learned a lot. After that we had sacrament meeting and I had to bless with my companion. We had a District leaving so they mostly bore their testimony and it was awesome to listen to. We then watched the Christmas Devotional and it was very good. I love Christmas! :) we then watched some of meet the Mormons and it is pretty good. I'm enjoying it here and I LOVE PDAY! haha I finally am getting a break haha. 

I'm quite tired but I owe everything to the Gospel and I finally understand that this is exactly what I need to be doing. We went to the Temple this morning and I loved it! I love the Temple. The spirit is always so strong. Well I got to go do laundry but I'm enjoying the MTC but i'm super ready to just start teaching! haha well till next week! enjoy your week everybody! make sure you say your morning prayers!

-Elder Noad