February 21, 2017 Be Grateful for What's Already Happened

Hey family and friends! And i'm glad you liked the ties dad, Happy late Birthday! Well I'll be honest the week wasn't as good as we thought it would be! Still lots of things to be grateful for though! I'm having a great time with Elder Bybee. I can't believe the transfer is windin down, the time flies by. We only have three more weeks of this transfer and my prediction is I'm leaving Kingston sadly. :( I really don't want too. We've been doing a lot of finding. We don't have a lot of people in our teaching pool, so we are out and about a ton contacting and tracting. honestly we've been getting a lot of cold shoulders lately! I don't know if it's the season or our luck of the draw but it's taught me a lot. It can be extremely frustrating when you are out trying your best talking to people and getting rejected over and over and over again. I want our area to be a good role model for the other areas in our zone but it's been hard. 

So I took it to our Father in Heaven in prayer and he told me I need to be grateful for what's already happened so far. So I had a take a step back moment the other day about what me and Elder Bybee have done so far. We've gained the branches trust. The difference the first day we arrived to now is huge! We baptized Bryn!! We helped change a couple of people's lives in the branch! We reactivated Al and Joe! I've gained two best friends while serving here, Elder Bybee and Ebe. Helped motivate other missionaries in the zone. And who knows what else but I guess moral of what I'm trying to say here is that I felt a ton better in a bummy time. There's power behind the words count your many blessings. 

We can relate this to my trek experience a couple of years ago since my momma and sisters want to hear about it! Gotta be obedient. ;) So I remember looking pretty good in my pioneer outfit since dad let me use some of his swag clothes. I also remember practicing for the big trek hike, we would walk from a specific church to another in preparation. I remember taking a bus to where we were going. Got there and they put us into families and we were off with our treking group. We would take turns pushing or pulling the hand cart, and honestly it wasn't the funnest thing but it was good to have a good group that wanted to work hard. But there were some people that either wasn't working as hard or others were trying but were really struggling physically. It's a long walk and it can be hard at times with the heat and with grabbing a hand cart all day but it was really good experience for me. That may have sounded really intimating and it really wasn't. You guys are going to do fine and it's going to be really fun for you guys. You'll see others struggle and others not care. But try and make the most of every moment. Think of the pioneers and what they had to do. Holy holy it wasn't even close to what we did those couple of days. I remember receiving a couple of letters from mom and dad telling me how much they loved me. It helped a ton and it was great motivation. I read those letters last week and I had forgotten what they had said to me. But it was perfect for that exact time. Their words are precious to me.

Worked at martha table the other day. It's a food kitchen! People have been asking a lot of questions about the church! We've been having some really good lessons with Rich and Andrew who are probably our most solid investigators! Rich is sweet. He's retired from the military at the age of 40. He's so sweet, I love him. He's got a great personality and we click really well. He's been asking a ton of sincere questions. I can see this guy getting baptized. He just needs to get over a couple of concerns. Andrew accepted baptism! He has a couple of things he needs to do before he sets a date but he's doing awesome!! Joe is doing really well! Been coming to church every week! 

I love you guys so much! Have a good week ey?

xoxoxo

Elder Beddes  

Our go to Thrift store! haha

Contacting at Queen's University

Elder Bybee

February 14, 2017 (Handwritten Note)

How are you guys? I haven't written a letter for awhile and I thought it would be good to write right now since I'm stuck in the apartment cause of Elder Bybee being sick! It's pretty boring sitting in here and I wish I would be out doing stuff right now! Kingston is pretty fun. You get a wide variety of different people here! Rich, poor middle class, crazy, homeless, etc. Can't forget all of the college students too! We live pretty much on campus so we see a lot of students and its crazy to think that I'll be one of them in 6 months! Not excited at all. I've done a lot of contacting over here and you'd be surprised how nice they are! It's pretty fun!
I love Elder Bybee so much. I can't tell you how excited we were when we found out we were staying another transfer together. We've become best friends. It's funny to think that some of my companions know more about me then Chase or Jake do just because I'm with the 24/7! Elder B has come along way in life too. He's such a great example. He got into drugs his junior and senior year. It's amazing to hear some of the changes people have made in their lives. So many cool stories I've been able to listen to about people's conversion stories! The mission truly is a blessing. Man a ton of my mission buddies are home now! It's so sad to see them leave. 4/8 of my companions are already home and 2 of them are going home in a couple of weeks! It's crazy! I went to a meeting with 3 different zones and I didn't even know anybody!! I'm the old missionary now! The Sisters that came out with me into the mission are going home in a couple of weeks. That's completely strange. Doesn't seem real, time blows by quickly!  I better give it my all these next 6 months!
It's truly amazing to see so many miracles on your mission. To be a part of so many lives and even play a part or have an effect on people.  It's such a nice feeling! It's amazing to see why you were sent to certain areas on your mission as well. I love it!
It's good to hear that everybody is staying busy with school, work and sports! Lots and lots of sports lol! We are a athletic family that's for sure! You guys are going to be better than me at all the sports! I often wonder what the home would be like with me not being there. Is it different? I feel bad that Dad is the only male in the house! What was it like for you guys the first couple of months of me being gone? Do you guys anxiously await my weekly emails every Monday or has it become just a normal thing?
Thank you fo your letters to me. I always love reading them. It's always a nice feeling coming home from a days work and being able to relax and read your families letter! I loved reading the one about how you guys met and the proposal! Thank you for sharing that with me! I never really knew. I really like the pictures of your two at Rick's, I look at them often. So many people have told me that I look a lot like you Dad!
Elder Moffat, well now it's Kyle, one of my mission buddies just got engaged. And get this, he is engaged to a sister missionary that served here at the same time, Sister Osman. She's the one that wanted her harmonica back haha! They got engaged 3 months of being home!! Too quick? I don't know, probably! But that's pretty crazy! The wedding is May 7th, so I won't be there sadly! There are like 3 or 4 different RM couple's that are engaged that served here!
Our zone is pretty good. It's not the same with Elder Vargus gone. I love that guy so much! We have a sister here that is from Farmington! Jill Hess. 3 Farmington missionaries! We have lots of young missionaries in the zone that are still adjusting to mission life! But it's a good zone! I think Kingston and Sudbury are the smallest zones in the mission.
Well, I'm running out of things to say lol. Or I just don't know what to talk about. Maybe you guys could ask me some questions next time and that would help a ton! I'm grateful for you all! Each one of you has taught me so much! I'm grateful for the family home evenings we would have. The random family trips we would take! Going to Costco, to the movies, going out for frosties! I always took these experiences for granted, now I'm more grateful than ever. Sisters, know how blessed you are to be in this family. The more and more I'm out here serving the more and more I realize how celestial our family is. I love you Maleah, Brooke, and Amber. Holy cow, I'm tearing up again writing this! Keep going to church, reading the scriptures, and praying~ It's so so, so important. Keep being examples to everybody and stay strong!  I'm your biggest fan. Mom and Dad, can't thank you enough for what you do for me and the fam! You two are my greatest inspirations! Love, Coco

February 13, 2017 Once You Shoot the Ball...

Hey family and friends!! How's it going? My week was pretty good! Sickness is spreading and I've had a pretty bad cold these past couple of days and now Elder Bybee has it and he's been out of it today! haha I'm doing really well though! Having fun and working hard! I gave two blessings this past week to those who are pretty sick! They are feeling better, gotta love the power of the Priesthood!! We received a media referral the other day of a guy who was wanting a Book of Mormon so we have an appointment with him tomorrow, so i'm excited to see what happens!! We had a sweet lesson with an investigator that was searching on Kijiji for a new church! Me and the AP taught him the Restoration about four weeks ago and then family sickness happened and they ended up going to the Hospital! It's pretty crazy! But we taught him the Plan of Salvation this time and he loved it! He had a lot of great questions and really wants to know if what we are talking about is true. So he said that he was going to pray about it! Didn't come to church sadly! :( But hopefully next time! 

Volunteered at Martha's table! That's always a good time talking to people that come in! Prepping food! We had zone conference the other day! Drove three hours to Oshawa to go to this meeting! We had to give an instruction! So of course we related it to basketball. IT was pretty fun though, there was like 50 missionaries and the mission president and we all went into the basketball gym. Elder Bybee started instructing and then i  came running in and shot a three pointer at the buzzer and missed... pretty embarrassing. Then we like six missionaries come up including President Shields and they all took turns shooting it. We related it to missionary work and how once we shoot the ball it's really out of our reach. Leave it up to God on what happens and the amount of success you have! You can be faithful and obedient and do all of the preparation to be a successful missionary but whether or not the person you talk to on the street accepts the message or not is completely up to them! It was really fun, President loved it and kept quoting it in his meeting! haha Lots and lots of snow is falling now! We had like 2 feet yesterday! And it's supposed to fall tomorrow too! It's pretty crazy! Well that's really all that I have right now! I love you guys so much!!!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Beds

February 6, 2017 Now, I'm Preachin

Well.... it literally feels like I was typing a weekly email yesterday! I think God is speeding up time, anybody else feel like that? I've learned a lot this week. I would say the biggest reason why was the leadership meeting we had in Toronto. The good old 9 hour meetings we have every month! Can I say that it is extremely hard for me to sit in a seat for 9 hours?? Holy cow.... I just can't do it! I don't know how they expect me to!! It was a really good meeting though. I lot of it was based off of the worldwide missionary broadcast. There is a new schedule change for missionaries if you haven't already heard. Lunch was reduced to half an hour, pday is extended 2 hours (hallelujah), key indicators have changed dramatically, daily planning is now in the morning instead of at night, and really the morning are a lot more flexible as missionaries. Agency was a big part of the new schedule change. They are allowing missionaries to have more agency when it comes to the schedule and so I thought that was smart because it gets us more ready for life after the mission.

Another big part of it was the sacrament and how we as missionaries "progress to our next ordinance." I thought that was really neat. Are we progressing towards the sacrament on Sunday or is it just a one day thing? If we can have a better experience with the sacrament then we can teach our investigators more effectively as we share our experiences with them and as they see the Lord's face in our countenance. It was great! As Zone leaders, you are expected to share what was taught in that 9 hour meeting to your zones in just 3 hours! It was a good experience, it's pretty fun instructing with Elder Bybee, we make a great team but we owe it all to the Holy Ghost, our senior companion.

Honestly not a lot has changed this week. It was a slower week. I benefited greatly from this week so i'm not thinking it was a failure of a week. We had some great lessons with some of our investigators that we are working with! We were able to see a couple of new less actives and a couple of them went to church yesterday which really makes me happy! We talked to a lot of crazy people on the streets. Kingston downtown is pretty nuts. hahaha we were talking to this guy who belonged to the church "dark". This guy had to be on drugs... the only way I could describe him is relating it to the guy who sells eagle eggs off of Nacho Libre. He reminded me so much of this dude hahaha! He believed that Robocops were going to take over the world. Oh man it's always good times having experiences like that! 

I'm grateful for the sacrament! I'm grateful for the Gospel! I know it can help anybody in this world for it is the only true way to lastly happiness! I know the church that has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith is the only true church on the face of the earth. How do I know? Well I wanted to know, I asked, I experienced, and now I'm preachin. 

Love you all!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Beds 

Feb 6, 2017 Letter From Brooke

This is what Brookie sent me! Isn't that so nice? 

"Colten, when you're going about trying to talk to people, and people refuse you, what's something that you see in common with all those people? Do you see that there all stubborn and unhappy? For me Colten, there's a difference between "depressed" and "unhappy". Colten sometimes I get unhappy because I've had certain trials in my life that have brought me down, but there's something that I've realized through all my trials, that I've always had a hard time thinking about and actually believing but while I read a scripture in 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
This scripture Colten, has helped me so much. And I'll be honest, for me whenever I hear somebody say "oh this scripture has changed my life" I always find it cheesy and unbelievable, but reading through my patriarchal blessing it said something about how reading my scriptures will give me the joy and happiness that I need. And this scripture is telling me that even though I've had some pretty tough trials that have brought me down, that I can handle the trials and that God gives us these trials for a reason, although hard to see right now but I'll see it in the future. Colten I just wanted to share this scripture with you because I feel that this is a scripture that can apply to so many lives and even "change someone's life" and you know it's hard to see that it will from this perspective, but coming from someone that truly needed this scripture and was almost kind of mad at God because of the trials that he's given me. You know that God gives us trials so that he can test our faith in him, and I've discovered that God may give his toughest trials to those he think really need it and because he knows that this trial will show them that relying in God in all things is what you need to do. And reading through all your Emails and reading through the investigators that you've taught has shown that a person that has strayed away from God can come back to God, and those who do, realize that the choice that they've made is truly the right one.
Colten I really do think what you are doing is truly inspiring and I've seen missionaries change lives and you know growing up in Mississippi i remember dad always driving around the missionaries and always going with them to do blessings, I always thought that missionaries were just the coolest guys and whenever I see one walking around, I always think of you and how you are taking the place being a missionary, you know the people that I've always looked up to, and I really am not just saying this, but you really are inspiring! And I think that you are the coolest brother ever ;) and it's amazing that you are serving a mission, you know the thing that you've been working your way up to your whole life and i remember even as a kid you saying that you are going to go on a mission! I know you and other missionaries out there are changing lives out there and you guys are miracle workers
Love ya coltey boy, coco, coco jo":

-Brooke

January 30, 2017 Straight Outta Kingston- I'm Staying!

This week was a pretty good one. Good news and bad news, but hey that's what makes the week adventurous! Me and Elder Bybee are staying another transfer together!!!! When we received our transfer call that we were staying we like jumped up off of our seats and then starting high fiving as hard as we could over and over again. We were so excited! We are getting 4 new missionaries in the zone so i'm excited to meet them! We are seeing Elder Vargus leave the zone, he's one of my favorite missionaries, and he's going to Toronto for his last transfer. I'm going to miss that guy so much. 

I was mean to Ebe last night. I lied to him over the phone that I was getting transfered which he didn't want to happen at all! We saw him like everyday last week because he didn't want us to get transferred and wanted to spend as much time with us! haha and so when I told him that I was getting transferred there was a lot of silence. He didn't know what to say. It sounded like he was going to cry and at the very end I told him I was just kidding and he hung up! lol So we called him back and he said to never do that again! haha He was pretty pumped that we got to stay another 6 weeks! I love that guy so much! 

We had another in detail discussion with him the other day in the car about the gospel... he's got so much intent. He's been doing a ton of studying of the church and it became a reality to him that we were leaving and so he was really diving deep this past week! After the discussion we had with him, after he had gotten out of the car, I just started balling. Elder Bybee probably thought I was huge baby haha but it was so hard to for me to listen to his concerns about the church. You can tell in his voice that he really wants to know the truth but because of his upbringing in different beliefs it's extremely hard for him... and for me to step into his shoes and the amount of love that I have for him, it was extremely hard for me. I don't think I have ever had so much love for someone on my mission. We are best friends and I just want him to get it and to accept it but it's just very confusing to him right now. But he's trying!

We gave talks yesterday in church. I gave a talk on The Book of Mormon and Elder Bybee talked on Joseph Smith! I accidentally talked for 25 min. and Elder Bybee only had 10... hahaha my bad! They were good talks though, it was really good for our inv. Ebe and Andrew!

Shirley dropped us... quite unexpectedly. She said that she didn't want to join because there was to much to handle. After we had just had the most awesome lesson with her. She started referring to the church as her church... I don't really want to talk about it to much haha but things like that happen and it's ok! That's life! 

Sorry it's kind of short but know that I love you guys with all of my heart! I love the mission so much and I love kingston!! So many miracles have happened! Many people are coming to church! I'm lovin life! 

Love

Elder Beddes       

January 23, 2017 Disgusting Seafood Soup

Hey hey hey it's Fat Albert! It's been another great week here in kingstown. So many great things happened this week! I swear that I say that every week but this one is more so. haha first off Ebe is sweet. I love that guy, I never thought I would make such a great friend on my mission. He read Alma 32 and loved it. He's really mad that we could be getting transferred next week so he wants to do something every day of the week haha! We hit our record for lessons taught in the week! And also Investigators at church! Shirley and her son came to church! (She was a media referral) Had a lesson with her after church and she says that that was the best church she's been too ever. She refers to it as her church now! haha she wants to join as well! Pumped for it!! Andrew who we found contacting at the university came out too! It was the first time in like 10 years that he had been to church! He said it was a ton better than the churches he went to in the past. He wants to go every week now!! Pumped for it!!! Man that's music to my ears! I think that he is figuring it all out! He lost his connection with God after he had stopped going to the point where he didn't even believe. I think it's coming back to him though! I mean... he says he wants to come every week and wants to meet with us more often! 

Let's see here... 

we are volunteering at a soup kitchen. Me and Elder Bybee cut bacon for 2 hours.... that was sweet! Our hands smelt like bacon for two days. It's been good though, the volunteers have been asking questions about the church and what we do. It's good to get the name out there too. Got some new awesome branch missionaries that are wanting to help us! That's fantastic for us! The branch loves us now haha! They fed us everyday for the past like 2 weeks, and the people that didn't like us, now do!! YES!! Lovin this!!! Elder Bybee is getting better at basketball(still a rookie, don't tell him a said that ;)).

It's pretty cold here. Warmer than last winter though! 

The other day we were fed the most disgusting dinner. I was grateful for their willingness to have us over and to feed us but they made some type of sea food soup with like tofu, three different types of fish, some like gushy noodles that looked like throw up.... I was strugglin to eat this. Like it was bad. Elder Bybee was trying so hard to hide his laugh while I was trying to hide my gagging noises. lol ohh man never again please. I wanted to cry on the spot. 

We taught Elders Quorum literally last minute because the teacher was sick. We studied to talk about 20 min before we taught. It was President Uchtdorf's talk about The great plan of our God. Such a good talk. What I learned from it is that something we take the Gospel for granted. We are so blessed to have the fullness of the Gospel here and we don't realize the blessings that could be bestowed upon us because of it. I regret I was like this before my mission not being more grateful for what I had regarding the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so blessed. Blessings on Blessings on Blessings. 

Love you all,

Elder Beddes, Coco, Uncle Drew    

Laundry day!

Elder Paul...he's home right now. :(

January 16, 2017 The Mission Has Changed My Life

This week has been a really good one! I swear that the weeks keep getting faster and faster. There's something about staying busy that just makes the time fly! Me and Elder Bybee are having a blast together! We get along so well and we only have about two weeks left till the transfer is over. :( I would say that the highlights of the week were finding a couple of new investigators to teach and seeing Joe M come to church and his desire to start coming out every week! Brings joy to my heart to hear that! We received an unexpected text from a guy who said that he was wanting to learn more about our church! He was asking some great questions about prophets as well! So we set up a time to meet him at the church to teach him more! Me and Elder Carroll the AP was on exchanges with me and we were able to teach him! It can be hard to teach with somebody that you have never really known and know what their teaching skills are like but everything was just so smooth and the lesson was powerful! He was asking the most sincere questions ever and was really engaged in the lesson it was great! He has a family of 3 daughters that are really young as well! The Lord blessed us with a family! Thank you!! Invited him to be baptized and he said yes with no hesitation! Gotta love it! 

Everything just seemed to go well this week! We taught a lot of great lessons this week to people we've been working with! People are coming out to church! The branch is loving it! The branch is doing really well! I was able to really express my gratitude as I gave a talk yesterday about how much I appreciated them, so hopefully they believe us! The branch has been feeding us a ton more than what they were at the beginning of us being there! So that's good!

Ebe came to church yesterday! Man I love that guy so much! We really have grown a strong relationship these past couple of weeks. He's one that I will stay in contact with the rest of my life. I just wish he could come to BYU-I with me! He's moving slowly but surely! We are going to follow up on what he's been doing so far about The Book of Mormon and praying and such!

I've been doing really well! I don't think I talk a lot about me but I'm loving life! I can't believe I have such a little time left on my mission! I was talking to Elder Bybee about this the other and I was expressing how I still feel like I've been out for like 5 months and I'm just so used to Older missionaries saying that they only have such a little time left... and now I'm one of those older missionaries. It doesn't seem real. But at the same time I still have 7 months so I'm happy! It's interesting to see as Zone Leader where missionaries desires are. You could easily pick out those who have a desire to work and those who don't. Those who actually care about the people they teach and those who care more about what they are eating for dinner that night. It's sad to see... and you can only hope and pray that they aren't like that after the mission.

I gave a talk yesterday about the personal relationship we should have with Jesus Christ and how he can really relate to us all and what we are going through! I shared two experiences to really paint the picture. One was my 8th grade experience moving and feeling so alone! And the other was seeing investigators fall short of baptism after working so much with them and seeing them progress! These are two experiences I've had that have really helped me gain knowledge and understanding of what Jesus Christ went through. Those were tough times in my life but I was able to have someone relate to me and help me through it! As well as my family of course! The mission has changed my life ladies and gentleman, it's changed me! And I owe it all to Jesus Christ! Hallelujah!!! hahaha

Love you all dearly and I think about you all often! Not joking!

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, Beds, Coco, Jojinator

Ebe

January 9, 2017 -12 Degrees- No Bueno!

Sounds like everything is ship shape with the fam in Farmington! I hope you had a great birthday and I'm glad you liked the picture! Thanks for sending it back, it looks sweet like that! I was just telling Elder Bybee that story about me shooting on the opposite side of the AAU game. I was wondering what our conversation was like after that game. Can you remember? Me and Elder Bybee are doing really well. We get a long so well! It's super fun! We had a sweet Zone Council the other day and we taught everybody about the new changes of the missionary schedule, holy ghost in conversion, and faith and repentance! IT was really good, the participation was golden and that makes all the difference! We had that huge MLC meeting that takes like 8 hours lol! We played ball before the meeting and so we woke up really early and I only got like 3 hours of sleep haha! Ok so if you remember last times Zl challenge was to eat Scotch bonnets. This time it was to eat a gold fish. For those of you who are grossed out already I would advise that you skip this part lol. So we all had to gulp down a live gold fish so that Elder Cattelain ( a good buddy of mine) would drink a pretty big baby shark. So we all did, mine wasn't that bad honestly it just felt weird going down my throat lol. Elder Cattelain couldn't do it the first time, he gagged it back up lol it was hilarious! But he did it the second time. We aren't sick so thank heaven for that! But it was pretty funny to watch!

Man!! 

We got a sweet LA named Joe to church the other day who hasn't gone in like a year! He loved it! He wants to start coming out more too! I love this guy so much, he's got the shakes but his testimony is rock solid! He usually teaches us instead of us teaching him! haha 

Ebe is sweet as always! We told him that he just needs to read The Book of Mormon. He read the introduction and he said that he understands what it is but is having a hard time with the desire to read it. He's just having a hard time adjusting I think since it's all new to him. But he is getting somewhere. I love this guy so much. We were making plans for after the mission to hang out haha! 

Well just like Jake i'm getting a little chub chub but that's alright. We will burn it off together! lol It's hard especially over the holidays ok!? I'm ashamed of myself but I will regain my six pack back! With the Lord's help anything is possible. Chase is doing pretty good. He's a Zl right now. He's always busy on Pdays or something like that so he has a hard time even emailing me. But he seems to be doing good! 

I have to keep this one pretty short. The week was pretty good. Got to see a couple of new people! Sister Hobbs from the StoneyCreek ward came and visited me and Elder Bybee! She's so cool, I love her so much! She took us out to dinner and we caught up! She's so amazing! In sacrament meeting I bore testimony of my stupid mistake I made of putting diesel in the car. ;) everybody thought it was hilarious!! It was an overall good week! I love the letters you guys send me and the emails! I'm grateful for all that I have. I've been blessed my entire life, and I'm grateful for the all of you! Oh and my driving in the snow is fantastic! I love it so much, you'd see me drifting around corners if you saw me. ;) The weather is really cold over here.... -15 yesterday. No bueno... oh and as well we are trying to regain the members trust here in Kingston. I think that is one of mine and elder bybee's roles here in kingston is to regain members trust since there were some experiences in the past of missionaries doing some no no stuff. SO we've been givin lots of cookies and letters to people and we've been seeing a big difference! It's amazing! So just an update of how everything is going! love you all! 

Forever and Always,

Elder Beddes, coco, diesel   

MLC

 Elder Bybee

Leadership Missionaries!

January 3, 2017 NEW YEAR!

Thank you for the lengthy emails! I love how they are always in great detail! So to answer some of those questions you guys sent me... our investigators are doing alright. Still trying to build up the area! We came into the area with nothing really lol just like the other areas I've served in! haha but it's good we are doing our best! Ebe is amazing, we had another long lesson with him about the plan of salvation. We used a lot of bible scriptures to back up some of the truths up and he finds them really interesting and I think we are progressing with him! The media referell we received awhile ago has been really sick lately so that's no good. But we do have an appointment with her this Saturday hopefully! The weather has been pretty cold lately! Reminds me a lot of last winter but not as bad as Sudbury! Holy Cow that Root Canal story is awesome!! Blessings on blessings on blessings!! I'm doing really well, Elder Bybee is fantastic! We get a long so well! I know him like the back of my hand! Our week was pretty good, nothing to exciting to be honest! We were able to set up some appointments with some part member families that we haven't seen yet so we are excited about that! We were able to get into some doors that have been tough to get into!! New Years Eve and Day were interesting. You don't really do anything as missionaries to celebrate haha just chill and talk! But it was good, I'm excited for the new year!! My personal goals are to reactivate a family, baptize 5 more, gain a better understanding of the Plan of Salvation, email past companions every once in awhile, email converts couple of times during the month, get ripped, and keep my apartment clean always!! I think I can do it!! Sounds like you guys had a great celebration! Those jello cups look amazing I miss those so much!! Ebe says hi by the way, he was so excited that you guys wanted me to say hi to him! Me and Him are really tight, I plan on visiting this guy after the mission!  

I'm teaching Elder Bybee Basketball and he's getting really good. WE go in the mornings and I just tell him to do some basketball drills and it's like i'm coaching. Totally reminds me of the times we practiced together. I'm grateful for all that you guys have taught me(mom and dad) and I may have had a bad attitude about it at the time but I'm grateful for all that you do and have taught me! It wasn't until I experience something especially on my mission when I start to realize why things were taught to me. 

We taught Elders quorum on Sunday last minute. SO we threw something together and we wanted to talk about the sacrament and how we can make it more personal to us. I sadly didn't take it as seriously as I should have before the mission which i fully regret, but know I can say that I understand! Preparing for the sacrament is very very important. Not just expecting the day of, but remembering and looking forward to it throughout the week will make your experience so much better! I'm grateful for the chance that I have take the sacrament to remember the most important event of all time and how personal it can be to all of us. Christ died for us so we can live. Christ atoned for us so we can be made whole and experience true happiness as we exercise our faith and repent! The Gospel is true, I would be hopeless and without purpose and meaning in my life if I didn't have it. I repeat that last sentence once again lol I would be hopeless and without purpose and meaning in my life if I didn't have it. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Beddes,Coco, Jojonator 

Swag

 Elder Vargus going hard with a light sabor!!