First Mesa Birthday- Week #46

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK ELDER FINDLAY!!!

 

I know I'm going to miss saying I'm 18 haha because there aren't many 18 year olds who have been out as long as me! But I guess I have to grow up, not my favorite thing to do but that's okay😅 Things are going pretty well down here. Alot of people are going out of town for the next few months to get away from the heat here in sizzling Mesa. In ward council they said that for the month of July there is only 30% church attendance. So that's going to be weird!

But this week we were able to introduce Elder Karren to a lot of the ward members before they leave. He'll probably finish up his mission in this area. Transfers were crazy crazy crazy. Not to mention it was 121 degrees that day. Those poor greenie missionaries that arrived that day! haha, I'm sure they were questioning what they've done😂 We all met at the mission office and did the switch there. Man I was so bummed to leave Elder Nuttall. I wish we could have been companions for a longer time. But he emailed me and said he's doing well. He's gone out a bunch with the missionaries at home already so I can tell he's still in missionary mode. We got all of our stuff to our apartment and I cleaned it for like 5 or 6 hours this week. When I first got here I was so surprised how bad it was. So I cleaned like everything. I made our room actually look like a room. The walls and floors were all stained and dirty so it looks better now thank goodness. I'm a little OCD😂 I like having roommates though, especially when one of them was your comp😂 we talk about our area a lot which is cool. A few of the people we were teaching together are now getting baptized soon! That makes me really happy. Especially Mike B., apparently he got a new job and has started to give up some of his habits so he can be baptized!👍

My new companion Elder Karren and I are getting along great. He's cool and really knows how to work. He's more reserved and quiet than Elder Nuttall that's for sure but we have a good time! Especially since he's from Logan we talk about Bear Lake and stuff like that. He played quarterback for Sky View high school so we talk about football a lot too. 

Mom note: I got a great text from a member of one of his wards and a video this week...

And yeah Sister S. is the best! I love their family. They had seriously like 15 javelina in the front of their yard😂 so I had to use the car alarm to scare them away! They are some ugly creatures. We actually get to have dinner with them again tomorrow!  They signed up twice...yes!

We visited some Sisters in a retirement home this week and had good conversations with them. It totally reminded me when we went to see Grandpa Nielsen right before I left. I will always remember that and how he talked about his mission in his story mode😂 I love Grandpa, I pray for him too. 

 I'm super proud of Landon and Mason, seriously they are going to be such good leaders in the mission, and in life of course. Those two radiate the spirit like non other. I don't think I've seen anyone live their beliefs as good as they do. Makes me so happy. I love them both!

And your right about the heat. Super super hot. Luckily I have a car but it's black so it's still hot haha. But yeah no heat here stops us from going door to door. Doorsteps are so hot, I told Dad that I can just feel the sweat drip down my back when I'm standing there. I never sweat a lot before my mission....ever. But here I do so that's a change for me😅 those poor missionaries on bike though. Man that's so tough. Elder Bland is training one of the new missionaries that came out! Elder Bland is the first one from our transfer to train so I was so hyped! Anyways he's training, has four wards, and 2 of them he has never been in, and he's on a bike! That's hard stuff right there. We talk a lot though and he said it's good!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and package! I'm turning 19 in Mesa!  Have a great week everyone! I love you!

Elder Findlay

Check out those ugly javelinas

My new room, after I cleaned for eternities...

new digs..

Hot Mesa- Week #45

Hey! 

Transfers are tomorrow so my new companions name is Elder Karren! He is from Logan and he was actually my first district leader when I started my mission and he's awesome. He was kinda strict back then but I heard he's mellowed out a little bit and is having a good time! I'm excited to be his companion, he's been out for like a year and a half. AND he likes golf A LOT and so yeah we'll be doing a lot of that on p-days.😊

I am moving a few miles south into an apartment. And guess what? Elder Child is my roommate/district leader again.  Not sure how I feel about that but it's okay.  I'm super excited for this transfer. Now that I'm pretty familiar with the members and how things go in the area it will be nice. 

Today was nuts, so sorry for the short email. We went all the way out to Globe with Brother Holt and Bother Pile for lunch. It's like an hour and a half away from us, way out east by the Apache reservation. The reason we wanted to go out there is because Elder Nuttall has never been out there before and we both wanted to check it out. And it is sooo different, really really kinda ghetto out there. Its like a different world. Now I understand where the Elders are coming from who serve out there. Its rough, but really cool. 

We both packed this morning and it was crazy! Super crazy and stressful. So sorry about the scattered email. After Globe we got all of Elder Nuttalls stuff to the mission office where all of the missionaries who are leaving were gathered.  Everyone was talking about home and so it was making all of the missionaries not going home super trunky. But it will wear off once we get back to work, it always does. I'm going to miss my man Elder Nuttall, he's changed my mission and he's going to be an awesome missionary at home.

Other than that I don't have much time left but, I do want to say I love and appreciate all of the support from everyone! I love you all. Have a great week!

Love Elder Findlay

Mi Casa in the desert

Desert "wasteland" lounge chair

Yeah it's gettin toasty!

Me and my pal Elder Nuttall

Summah Time- Mesa week #44

Hi Everyone!😂 

So today I was able to give a talk in the Las Sendas Ward about Heavenly Father and his daily guiding hand. I really focused a lot on the doctrine of Christ, more specifically having the faith that God will guide us. I think I did a pretty good job. It was supposed to be fifteen minutes but I think it only ended up being like 10 haha, sometimes I just don't have anything else to say😂 Elder Nuttall was super happy because he got an extra five minutes. He loves public speaking for some reason😂 I can't believe we are already down to our last week together. The last six weeks have been the best weeks of my mission! I'm excited to see what happens next!

Its pretty hot still but you just kind of got used to it so it's actually not too bad. And you're right I love having a car! It is the best! It is black though, so it's super hot every time we get in. We've been doing a lot of driving off road in our car and so we are trying to convince Elder Rasmussen, our vehicle coordinator, to get us one of the off road vehicles😁 He's said he'll try but who knows, our poor Cruze though😂 as far as transfers go for next week, I am going to stay here for sure, just going to be getting a new companion. It will be good for both of of us, I can get around the area now a lot easier but I am still trying to meet everyone. There are a lot of people in our wards. Except recently. Everyone has been going away for the summer and so Las Sendas Ward is getting really small. Lots of snowbirds here. 

We have gone out to visit Matt again! (green bus guy in the desert) We've been out there a bunch actually just helping him out. He and his grandma are super sweet people, we brought them a bunch of cold water and stuff and they were super grateful. Matt says that he needs to get out of there because this heat isn't good for his grandma and so he is trying to get the bus up and running so they can go up north for the summer. So we've been recruiting people from the ward to help out and its great! I got a better picture of his bus, it's actually pretty clean and neat on the inside.  I wouldn't be afraid to live in it😂 They have a guard dog named Ganja who's super scary looking when you pull up because she barks and growls a ton. But once you pet her she is like the best dog ever haha, she's always lays upside down trying to get cool😂

All of the young men and young women here have been going and coming from girls camp, scout camp, high adventure, super activity, and all sorts of things! I always joke about how we should just go with the priests on their high adventure, because we're the same age so why not right?😎 The youth here are soooo awesome, they are good kids. They know how to have fun but keep their standards at the same time. That's the kind of youth the world needs right now. I also think our youth in our ward back home are the same way! 

This week we really just visited a lot of member families and oh we met a guy who was a Book of Mormon referral! He requested a free copy of the Book of Mormon on Mormon.org and so we met him at Golden Spoon ice cream and talked about it. He lives in Las Sendas Ward. We actually stopped by his house once before we met him but he didn't answer. But his house is massive. And he's like 25 years old. He looks like our age though it's crazy! His name was Nathan and he was a super chill dude, that's what he called himself😂 He said that the reason he wanted to read the Book of Mormon is because he saw the Broadway play of it and so he wanted to see if the Book of Mormon told the story similarly. Not the most typical way to find interest in the Book of Mormon but hey, we'll take it! He said that he will read it and see how he likes it. I am praying that the spirit will touch his heart and let him know that there is so much more to the gospel of Jesus Christ than just some lame broadway play. It's a way to find answers to his questions. 

All in all I couldn't have asked for a better week to serve! Lots of good things are coming about in this area and I know that it's because of the hand of the Lord. Always remember that he is always walking beside us. Thanks for your email Momma! I love you more than ya know! Have a great week and keep being the awesome mom I know! 

Love Elder Findlay

a better view of Matt's place

Just can't get enough of those Arizona sunsets


This is a video Elder Nuttall took of our ride out to Matt's place

Preachin in the Sun- Mesa Week 43

Hey!

Thanks for the great email! It looks like you guys had a good first week of summer! I'm super excited for Landon and Mason, they are going to be great missionaries! I'm glad you got to be there when they took out their endowments. I bet they really enjoyed the temple. And you got to have Stake conference! That's awesome! I love Stake conference, it is always so uplifting.  

Its crazy that it's summer time again! Down here it just always feels like summer because the sun is there warming you up 24/7/365 days a year. I don't know how people live here in this heat. I go outside every morning at 10 o'clock and its already like 100 degrees. I walk into the sun and it's like getting slapped in the face! Sometimes I feel like I'm turning into a vampire😂 but hey, I'll have a good tan when I get home😎

We were able to have interviews with president this last week and it was great! We talked about my area and how it's kind of a tough one but we can find success there if we trust in the Lord. He told me that he is actually thinking of putting 1 or 2 sets of missionaries in the Stake rather than the 3 sets that we have now. It would allow us to be more busy and productive at the same time. So we'll see what happens this next transfer, it's going to be crazy!👍

So yesterday was like the best day since I've been here! Also the most bizarre😂 Anyways we woke up and played pickle ball with Bishop H. and Bro K. Its actually a lot of fun ha, we played with a bunch of older dudes in the ward and they are all pros at it. I got whooped on my first few games😂 but hey you win some and then you loose some right? But by the end I was doing good. Then later we had just a bunch of people to go visit including a referral from our ward mission leader. And its not just an ordinary referral. He said that he was driving on the freeway and off in the desert boonies he saw a flag sticking up and so he decided to go off-roading and check it out! Turns out that there is a green bus and a bunch of other stuff there just sitting in the desert. He said it looked like someone lived there and he was right! There is this guy named Matt who lives there. So Brother Jensen just talked with him about the gospel and gave him a Book of
Mormon! Haha seriously it is so awesome, he just saw a flag in the desert and ended up giving a Book of Mormon to that guy!

Anyways he gave us the referral and so we figured we might as well go find this guy. We drove on to this dirt road and started our journey!We literally drove for like 15 minutes on the dirt road until we saw his abode😂 I felt like we were in a movie driving up to it. It was really cool but also kind of sketchy because we were seriously in the desert boonies! We parked a little ways away from his bus because we just
didn't want to scare them or something like that. We walked up to it and first thing this huge dog came out and started growling and barking at us. Once he calmed down I yelled hello and someone said that they would be right out. It was like 10 minutes just waiting for them to come out and finally some dude came out. Of course he knew we were the Mormons but he was actually super friendly and gave us apple juice and shade😂 His name is Matt and he is 30ish years old. He was really open and friendly to us. He said he really appreciated us stopping by. He said that he has lived there for 4 months and no one has stopped by except us, Brother Jensen, and Mesa PD😅 We started talking and were able to teach him the restoration and he really liked
it. We told him that we all have an open choice whether or not to believe in the Book of Mormon, but we believe it is the word of God. He actually read the introduction before we
stumbled upon him and now he is going to pray about it.  He needed something to remind him about it and so he wrote our names on the side of his bus with sharpie haha! So yep it was great! Plus that means that we found a new investigator!

One thing that I learned from that experience was that you shouldn't judge people by what they have. You can just tell that Matt cares for everyone. He has the light of Christ in him. His Grandma actually lives with him because her children won't take care of her and Matt is working hard to keep her comfortable. Just a super good person. Its hard to find people like that now a days.

Other than that we visited a lot of less-active members and part member families which was good for me. I got to meet a bunch of people that the wards have been working with. We also did a TON of service. We helped 4 people move and that wiped us out! Oh and I had a little food poisoning as well one night so that was fun! We were pretty exhausted this week😁 This next week is going to be great and I'm excited to see what comes next!

I love you Momma!❤️ I say it every week because I do! Have a great summer week!

Love Elder Findlay

Check out that huge cactus!

We have an awesome view!

Cool flower thing I saw

Matt's house

Mesa Week 42

Hi Family! 
I'm sure your loving it at the lake right now! Especially with the weather, I could use some of that down here. Its getting hot but really it's not been that bad. Normally at night it doesn't cool down but it has been for the most part! Its super nice. I miss the lake a lot😂 that's one of my favorite places during summer! Good thing it's not going anywhere! 

I finally had a lesson with our most progressing investigator!
She is the best! She's 21 I think and is super super open. We had an amazing lesson with her at the Visitors center. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and she really understood it well. She is reading the Book of Mormon and is going to pray about it this week! I forgot how fun it is to teach people with a desire to change! It makes things so much better😂

We also did a lot of service this week. We helped a less active member move which was a lot of fun. They then took us to lunch after for some sushi. Back home I was too picky to even try sushi so I hadn't even had it before. Well,  I had it and it was.....not my thing😂 to slimy and fishy for me. I did eat all of it but by the last one I was struggling haha! I like cooked fish better😁

Right now we are still meeting with lots of members, street
contacting, and doing online proselyting. Sometimes it's hard to fill our time but when we pray for opportunities to help people, the opportunities always come up. That has been a huge blessing for me. I can't tell you how many times we have had all of our lessons for the day fall through and end up not knowing what to do for the rest of our time. I sometimes just have no clue what to do, so I say a prayer
asking for someone to be in our path that could use our help. EVERY time we've been able to help someone with something whether it be a service or a short conversation. Every one of Gods children needs help in one way or another. And its very important to pray for those opportunities everyday. Plus, your day is soooo much better! Why wouldn't anyone want that? It changes how you think about or feel
towards others😇 as you begin to look at them through the eyes of God.

There might not be a lot of work going on right now but I am learning so much everyday. More and more I am glad that I'm out serving the Lord. There isn't a better feeling. I'm doing great! I'm always praying for everyone back home and I love you sooooo much!

Love Elder Findlay

mom note: the first 3 pictures were sent to us this week from the great Mesa members with such kind words about our missionary :)

My area is under the Phoenix sign...

Check out me and Shaq's signed game shoe!
It's so huge, I could probable fit my head in it!

Days for the eternities...Mesa Week 41

Hey! Another week flew by already! I loved this last week and everything that happened! As far as the new area goes I really like it! We don't have too much work going on but we have a blast. I absolutely love being in car because Elder Nuttal doesn't like to drive so I get to do all the driving. I forgot how much I missed it 😆The members in this area are really great to us. For the most part we meet with members and help them with their missionary work. I'm still trying to meet as much of them as I can before Elder Nuttal goes home.

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with my district leader Elder Empey. He is a pretty cool dude, we actually came out together. We visited some people in his area in the morning and then went to do some service for a food bank called Manna. It is run by a Christian church group and they love us missionaries so its pretty awesome. We slip some gospel
talk into it whenever we can 😊 After dinner that night we had the opportunity to give a member a blessing. He was getting back surgery in a few days and was feeing super stressed out about it, even to the point of being really sick. We left there to Elder Empeys ward mission leaders home for a meeting. The work in their area is a little more fruitful than ours but they are having a tough time too. We then visited some people in the ward and even one of their former investigators who is now an investigator again! It was great, plus he
was watching the Warriors and Spurs game so I heard some of the game. Tender mercies are a real thing 😂

We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was a real eye opener for me. There were a lot of things discussed. One of the things talked about was the topic of living up to our potential. Sister Townsend gave a bomb training on it. She is seriously the best! She said we who are in the mission field right now have already accomplished the biggest part of our missions. That big part is being worthy and prepared to come on a mission. That means living worthily, exercising
our faith, and preparing ourselves to proclaim the restored gospel for the Lord. For some missionaries that is enough for them. They don't live up to the potential that God knows they have. They go home and go back to being the same person that they were before their mission. They don't live up to their potential. I'm not going to let that happen to me, I don't want to go home and be the same person. I mean my personality will probably still be the same. I will
still love sports and cars and all of that, but I want to be changed in Christ. I want to say that I lived up to my potential on my mission and was changed by it. That's one thing that I took from this week, I want to make sure I live up to it.

I finally got to go to my first district meeting in this area! My
district is pretty chill but two of the missionaries in it are going home at the end of this transfer. So change is definitely going to be happening in the next 4 weeks. The weather this last week was super super nice so we decided to bike some of our area and it was honestly really great! It kind of felt good to get on a bike again. The weather was perfect and Elder Nuttall was dying because he has been in a car his
whole mission except for 1 transfer😂 I found out that I had some flats before we biked so I had to buy some new bike tubes. 

That night we had dinner with Brother Bowers and he is sooo funny! This guy is a crack up! Anyways he is an super talented artist. He's sculpted and painted a lot of things for the church. He sculpted the 3 big statues of the young men who carried people across the river at Martins Cove. He's
got some great pictures of it and it's neat. He also does a lot of drawings and I don't know how we came to this question but he asked us "Now is your chance to ask me any question have at it" . So I asked him "have you ever drawn missionaries before?" Haha I was kind of joking but he got up and got his sketch book and drew little pictures of us😂 They are the best! haha...Elder Nuttall loves them so much. They are one of a kind👍

This weekend was really special because I was able to go to the baptisms of a family I taught in my first area, the Venegas fam! It was so great to see all the people from Salt River ward again! I seriously love that ward so much. It was definitely one of the happiest moments on my mission. I've seen tremendous change in their family, the most out of anyone I've known. Now I'm looking forward to going to the temple with them in a year!😁 oh and also that night we ran into some Havalina. Not sure if that's how you spell it. They are
wild boars in the desert haha, they are actually like pretty
dangerous. Apparently they try to charge you and bite you. Luckily we were in a car so that didn't happen😂 Watch the video...

Yesterday Elder Nuttal was sick and so we weren't able to go to church. We just stayed home all day and it was okay but at the end of the night I was going crazy😂 I needed to get out! But it was kind of nice, I was able to organize all of my stuff and study things that I haven't had time to study. Oh and we live downstairs and there is a TV so we watched pretty much all of the approved missionary films😂 It was great to rest but I'm ready to get out again!

I learned a lot about myself this week and I had a really great time! You seriously learn so much as a missionary. Thanks for the email Mom! I loved it! Your words of motivation help me a ton and it makes me even more happy to be out here! I love you so so much! Bye!

Arizona sunsets are the best

The Venegas family and my boy Elder G

The sketches that Brother Bowers drew of us in 5 minutes!