Prayers Are Answered

Hey Family!

I hope all of you have had a great week! That sucks about Heather's ring. I will be sure to keep her in my prayers and I hope that situation gets resolved. 

So this week was good I was stressed out a lot during the middle of it but things have seemed to resolve. I was a bit worried about Pam, Eric and Spencer because we didn't hear much from them this week. We did some service for them on Tuesday and then they said they would like a take a little break from the visits, which is fine, but we tried to get a hold of them for some information we needed for the baptismal records and they would not respond, or anything. No texts, and they wouldn't answer the phone. So I was worried something happened, but come and they came to church and everything worked out. Eric and Spencer were ordained to the priesthood and Pam and Eric were called to be greeters. That should be good for them, to be able to meet most everybody :) 

Yesterday we went over to their house and had a bit of a "family home evening." We watched The Testaments with them and they enjoyed it. Pam said the last part made her cry haha. 

Christine and her kids did not show up on Sunday reason being Christine said that Aaliyah has the flu or is sick or something. We still have an appointment to see them either today or tomorrow. 

Also our Mission President and his wife made it out to our ward to speak. It was pretty good. President Weston is a very knowledgeable guy. I know I am sometimes negative about him, but I don't really feel that way. I sometimes get frustrated about something, but for the most part I really do like him. And no I have not brought up going home a month early with him. I figured I'll leave that to the professionals ;) 

So tomorrow should be fun. It'll be my first District Meeting as District Leader. And Mom it's not just every other week. 3 out of the 4 weeks of a month are District Meetings. So preparing trainings for them should be fun. This weeks topic is How can we more fully utilize planning to fulfill our purpose? 

And don't worry about sending me a Mormon Doctrine. I can wait till I get home to rummage though it again. Right now Brother Holmgren's copy is enough. This week with other investigators went pretty well. 

We finally taught Jessie. She seemed to be very receptive and I have high hopes with her. I mean she already has strong faith in Christ, and I hope she puts forth the effort to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We also had a pretty neat experience with a less active member. He has been less active for years. Probably like 12 years. He served in Iraq and lost all faith when he was there. He couldn't understand why God would allow so much suffering. Well anyways he has been struggling to find a job. He has been trying for months and nothing has worked. So this was when I was with Elder Chappell, but anyways I promised him that if he would make an effort to come to church, he would get a job very soon. And we also prayed that he would get a job. 2 days later he got 2 job offers. He didn't make it to church this past due to him having 11 teeth pulled, but he said that he will be there next week. He told me when we visited with him this past that he thought that I was a "fruit" for making a promise I couldn't keep, but he said "I stand corrected" and he knows it was God that answered the prayer so it seems his faith is growing again. 

Well I need to get going but I hope you all have a great week and stay safe!  I hope everyone has a great memorial day! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Ballif

All serving from Kaysville

New District Leader and Christine, Christian, and Aaliyah Came to Church

Hey Family!

I hope everyone has had a great week so far. Well it's only Monday so I couldn't imagine too much going wrong in a day. But rather I hope all of you had a great week last week. My week was pretty good. As you probably know, transfers occurred. So transfer news. I am still in Logan with Elder Scarpa. But there was one change. I am now the District Leader. So that should be fun. I am actually excited. Well other than giving training every single week, I am excited to go on exchanges and see the other areas of the district. And to get to know the other Elders in the district.

One weird thing though. The previous District Leader is still here. He was demoted and I was promoted, so I don't know. It seems like he's been a little bitter about it and has said some things that have rubbed me the wrong way. Hopefully things will work themselves out. They always do, if you're doing the right things.

So anyways... Things went great yesterday at church. Pam, Eric, and Spencer were all confirmed. The Bishop confirmed Eric, Scarpa confirmed Spencer, and I confirmed Pam. That was a good experience. That was my first confirmation and it wasn't so bad. The bishop's wife wrote them down in short hand so hopefully it doesn't point out how poor mine was hahaha ;)

So some good news about Christine, Christian and Aaliyah. They finally came to church!!! Holy crap that was a relief. They had to leave early after sacrament meeting, due to some family issues but I'm glad they came. Christian and Aaliyah should be good for baptism on the 14th of June. The Bishop is a little hesitant, because he was worried that they left church because they didn't want to stay for the full thing and he is worried that they'll stop coming to church after they're baptized. I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and I don't think she'd be making up those excuses. Stuff happens, I understand that. I feel like Christine is being sincere about making it back to church.

So about the conversion stories, I got stories printed out from Family Search. While they may not be ideal, I needed them before Thursday. We have Zone Conference this Thursday and I guess our Mission President wanted us to get these, because we're putting a big emphasis on families in the mission right now. I am pretty excited for Zone Conference. I'll get to see Elder French and have some fun with him. I hope everything is going well.

I am excited to see you guys again in a pretty short amount of time. And that is pretty crazy about Carsen. I am glad I've never had to deal with any real serious injuries. I hope it all heals properly and that he doesn't grow up shooting a basketball like Ronnie Brewer haha.

Speaking of basketball, I heard the Heat lost, thank goodness. They can't win another championship. I won't allow it.

Oh by the way Dad, I'm just curious. Do you have the book Mormon Doctrine? The members we live with have one and I read it all of the time. I would like to get a copy of my own but to my understanding they don't make it anymore. Oh well. True to the Faith is cool and all but it's too... mainstream. Chappell found a MD in super good condition at a thrift store for like 15 bucks and I was so jealous. What a random thing to be at a thrift store. Well I guess that's thrift stores for ya. There is still that RLDS Doctrine and Covenants from 1976 here in Missouri Valley. I almost bought it but then I realized I would never read it due to the fact that I don't really care what is in there after what we already have.

Well anyways I should get going.  Have a great week everyone! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Ballif

Crazy Weather, a wedding and baptisms

Hey Family!

So this will probably be fairly short since I talked to you guys yesterday. But this past week as been a good one. The baptisms and wedding went very well, and they should be confirmed on the 18th. 

So this past night was pretty crazy weather wise. There were several tornadoes in Nebraska, and the storm that was producing them was headed right for us, but it ended up breaking apart and lost some strength when it got to the metro of Omaha, and we still got some pretty gnarly thunderstorms and green skies, but no tornadoes. I was slightly chapped but whatever. I heard there was a tornado that touched down in Bellevue but I don't know if that's true. There was a place called Sutton, Nebraska that got hit pretty bad. Central Nebraska, had several tornadoes and some baseball sized hail, and there was also snow. But we didn't get a whole lot. Just a lot of rain and lightning. 

We are still working with Christian and Aaliyah, and they're planning on getting baptized in June, but they still haven't made it to church, so I don't know what the deal is with their mom. 

I really enjoyed talking to you guys last night. It was fun. That could very well be the last time I talk to you guys on my mission. I wish I could've talked to dad for a bit longer and actually talked to Austin without seeing a video of a video, but it was good. Brynlee is so darn cute now. I can't wait to see all of the grandkids when I get back. I am very excited. And seeing everyone again will be great. Only 7 months! I'll do my best to stay focused and to be successful, don't worry! I love you all! I hope you made it safely to Baltimore, Dad. I love you. Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Ballif

Pam's daughter was able to make it from BYU so that's pretty neat.

Baptisms and a Marriage

Hey Family!

I hope everyone had a fantastic week. 

My week was a pretty good one. It was very long though. Hopefully this next week will go by a bit faster. So Pam, Eric and Spencer should be good for baptism on the 11th. That is the plan. They will also be married on Saturday. So this week should be a fun one. 

I hope it all works out. Pam had to go to church in Des Moines, because she had to take their dog to the hospital for kidney failure or something in that nature. Which we 'ok'd' with the AP's so everything should be good. Eric, and Spencer went to church here yesterday so that was good. Eric had to take off after Sacrament because he needs to keep an eye on the hotel but he left Spencer for all 3 hours. To my knowledge he enjoyed it. 

Last Monday was a stressful one. We went to see Pam and Eric and they ended up calling the Mission President to see if they could plead their case to still get baptized on the 10th after the marriage. That didn't go over so well. Our Mission President ended up saying something that upset Pam and Eric. Something along the lines of "you don't get baptized for fun"... So Pam after that conversation said "Let's just not get baptized then" so as you can imagine it was very tense in the room. We were able to talk it over with her and Eric, and salvaged the situation. 

One of the reasons that was so stressful, was that I had no backup. Not a word from Scarpa. But the show must go on and it did. The baptism will be on the 11th. 

Oh so transfers are coming up next week, and I'm praying for something to happen. But if not then I'll try to make the best of the situation.

 So with Christian and Aaliyah. They still didn't come to church. I don't know what their mom is doing, but hopefully she doesn't cancel 2 appointments on us, like she did last week. The first lesson went so well. Hopefully these are legit reasons for canceling. And to her credit she did call us both times.

 We met a lot of less active members this week so that was good. We also got a new investigator named Jessie. She is super nice. We talked to her on the doorstep and talked about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and she took a copy. She seemed pretty interested and said that we could come back in a week to teach her more about the Church. She works for the Red Cross, so that's pretty neat.

 I make sure to get pictures of the marriage and baptism. That's pretty awesome about Cam's baptism. I'm proud of him. That must've been a cool experience. I wish I could've been there but I'll be there for everyone else's. Tell him congratulations, and Tori told me how he wanted to send her an invitation even though he knew she couldn't make it. Cam is the man. I'm glad he and the other kids like her so much. 

And Dad why didn't you tell me about about the Portland game?! I heard Damian had a pretty spectacular buzzer beater to win it. I wish the Jazz could've gotten him. 

Oh well. Well anyways I need to get going. Have a great week everyone! I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Ballif

Ups and Downs

Hey Family!

I hope everyone has had a great week. My week has been full of ups and downs. We got Pam and Eric's wedding all planned and situated and it was going to take place on the 10th and the baptism would follow right after. There is a rule that people need to make it to church at least 3 times before being baptized and they missed yesterday due to having sick grand kids to take care of and some out of the ordinary things happening at the hotel they run. Now that screws up what we had planned. We got permission to do the baptism on the 11th, after church but that may not end up working out. I was so stressed out yesterday. And Pam started texting us last night saying she was so overwhelmed that she may want to postpone everything. I hope the responses we gave, gave her some solace. But at this point I think postponing it a couple of weeks wouldn't be a bad idea.

So I was trying to deal with that and on top of all of that, I am super stressed out with Elder Scarpa, because he has been out for 7 months and still doesn't know the lessons. He didn't even know what the scripture reference was for the scripture that Joseph Smith read to inspire him to pray in the Grove. I had a nice chat with him about how he needs to know these things and to start studying PMG, which he never studies.

And on top of that... I had my driving privileges taken away. For 3 months. You know that new rule I was talking about? Yeah we had to go to Neola (54 mile round trip) on the last day until the miles would start over. We ended up going 3 miles over what we were supposed to. 3 miles! BUT... Come to find out yesterday I felt that I should look at the mile log again and recheck the math... The math was done wrong. We added on an extra day to our total miles. We actually went 49 miles under our allotment. So if there is any justice in this mission I will get my privileges back soon. I already informed the Zone Leaders yesterday so hopefully stuff is already happening.

Oh and we went to Neola to teach Christian and Aaliya, both of which would have been baptized on May 17th (we set them for that) but they didn't make it to church for whatever reason so that will have to be
postponed as well. But I'm sure things will work out in the end. They always do.

My faith is being tried, but I'm trying to keep a good attitude and stay calm about everything. It's hard to help other people not be stressed out about things when you're super stressed out

yourself. But I'm doing my best.

We should be going over to talk to Pam later today so hopefully we can get some things straightened out.

Oh also we will probably be Skyping from their place on the 11th. Still don't have details but it should be fairly soon after church.

Well other than that stuff it has been a fairly decent week. We had interviews with our Mission President and they were really good. I was very happy with the outcome of mine.

Well I hope everyone has a fabulous week. And thanks for that Easter package, Jenn. I think I have devoured everything in it. And Cameron is looking pretty good in his suit. ;)

Stay safe everyone. Have fun in Maryland and Virginia, Dad.
I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Ballif

Happy Easter

Hey Family!

How is everyone doing? I hope everyone had a great Easter. I sure did. Pam, Eric and Spencer all came to church. Spencer even brought a friend. It was a great sacrament meeting (that's all they stayed for, due to them running the Hillside Cottages, but I think they'll work it out to stay the full time one of these weeks) that was of course centered on Christ. I don't know how much Eric paid attention, but Pam said she loved it. I hope they can make it out for the full 3 hours next time.

We also got in contact with the less active member that wants to come back to church and she wants her 2 kids (9 and 11) to be baptized. She wasn't able to make it to church yesterday, because apparently she had something wrong with her neck and she had to go to the hospital. We plan on making it up to Harlan, where she lives, in a few days. We'll need to get a ride from someone, however, because we don't have a lot of miles left for the week. So it should be fun.

After church yesterday, we spent Easter with the Ortiz family. They're actually a bit less active but they pretty darn cool.

We went over to another less active's house, with the Ortiz's, for dinner. We had grilled chicken, corn, and pie and cobbler. It was some good stuff.

I found a tick crawling on me when we were there and I was freaking out the rest of the day, but I didn't find anything upon further inspection.

When then went back to Scott and Alisha's house (Ortiz) and played a round of Settlers of Catan and called it a night. I won, of course. :)

Oh Dad, before I forget. I checked the ATM and I'm like negative 2 bucks... Sorry about that. If you could put some money in my account for some food, that would be greatly appreciated. I ran out of my mission
money, early this month. I don't even really know why. Also we don't eat the food we have at home very often due to the distance away from everything we are, and it would be a waste of miles to drive back home to eat something.

Well I hope everyone had a great Easter. Those pictures that Kim sent were pretty cute. I liked the one
where Clara was eating the handle of the basket.

I hope you are having fun in Hawaii. Let me know how everyone is doing. I don't hear from any of them... Once in a blue moon, :).

Well anyways, have a great week
everyone. Stay safe. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Love,
Elder Ballif

Oooh so I have a cool story to tell :) So on Friday, Pam was driving
and had an impression to check her mirror and change lanes and
right after she did that (I don't know the exact details) but a semi
would have ended up hitting her and would have most likely killed her.
Friday we went to the temple. I had an impression to put Pam's name on
the prayer roll. Coincidence? I think not.

Conference and Things

Hey Family!

Well first I'd like to wish Cameron a happy belated birthday. I hope it was a good one. And that his baptism went well. I think it happened? My week was not too bad. We did not see as many people as last week seeing how we had conference 2 days straight but it still wentpretty well. 

We taught Pam, Eric and Spencer the Restoration and it went pretty darn well. Eric was being a little immature at times, to be funny, but hey, I do that too. But anyways we taught the lesson, committed them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we then watched the Restoration video because I think that does a better job than us at explaining it. Spencer had a lot of questions so that was good. It showed that he was paying attention and what not. 

We are going over there tomorrow to do some service for them and hopefully we can teach a bit while doing that and set up another time for a lesson. We did not invite them to be baptized (we either spaced it or weren't prompted to, not sure) but we'll get that in hopefully next lesson. Which will probably be the Plan of Salvation. But yeah everything went well and I'll keep you posted with them. 

The other people that I have mentioned, we have not been able to see. Christian and is mother haven't been home whenever we go there. Perhaps they were still in Phoenix seeing a doctor. But we tried several times throughout the day and there was no answer and then drove by at night, right before heading back to Logan and there were no lights on. They live in Harlan which is 30-35 minutes away from Logan and we usually only get there once a week for District Meeting. But we'll get in their door one of these days. 

Things are going alright with Scarpa and I. Nothing much has changed. He still does some things that get on my nerves but whatever, no one is perfect. Like now, for instance. I specifically told him not to get on any unapproved websites, and he's sitting next to me (he might not think I notice since there is a divider) playing a lego building computer game. He loves legos. He has bought easily over 100 dollars worth since I've been with him. Yeah and nerf guns. He also gets on amazon when he thinks I don't notice. But whatever I'm going to lead from the front and not from the back. Hopefully one day he'll get the idea. 

Oh speaking of amazon, there was something I wanted you to check out. If the music for Noah, was any good I might want the soundtrack. I got the soundtrack for the movie Son of God, last week, and it's aight. I mean it's done by Hans Zimmer so that automatically makes it good but not my favorite. 

Don't worry about ordering me the soundtrack for Noah, just let me know who the composer is and if was any good, and I'll find a way to get it. Probably Walmart, next time we are in Council Bluffs. I suppose we could go there today. 

So conference. It was pretty good. I honestly enjoyed the previous 2 more, but it was still very good. And yes Elder Bednar's talk was probably my personal favorite. Holland's was pretty good, President Monson's was as well, as was Uchtdorf's, as was Christopherson's, as was Presiding Bishop Stevenson's. There were many good ones. 

I will admit I "got a bit sleepy" during the middle 3 talks in the last session haha. But yeah it was good as always. You can't really go wrong with the Prophet and Apostles!

Well anyways, I need to get going. I hope everyone has a great week and stays safe. I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Ballif