Back to Work

This last week has been crazy busy for me because of captain's week, coaching a camp and getting ready to move back up to school. It felt like the first time I wasn't running from place to place every day was when I was getting into bed that night. It was definitely exhausting but a good preparation for fall camp which starts in TWO DAYS!! I can't even believe how soon the start of my sophomore year is. I'm so excited for everything about fall - starting classes, practice every day, games every weekend, traveling, being with my team all the time, I love it all so much. And to make it even better I finally get to start playing again, and that's easily the thing I'm looking forward to the most. Each time I train I feel more and more confident so even though I'm not completely back to where I was before my injury I know that will come in time. What's even crazier to me is that this is the last season that Mikel will have to miss! Ahhh!

"As you know I am not in my area due to my companions eye surgery. No we have not just been doing nothing we actually did quite a bit of work this week. We did a lot of door to door knocking and trying to find less active members here in Bloemfontein specifically the Rocklands area. It was amazing, it felt so good to get back out on the streets and do missionary work again.

As I wrote to President Thompson:

We spent a good part of this week tracting, which was fantastic. I never thought I would enjoy tracting as much as I did this week. Just getting into full groove of missionary work again has been great!  I guess it brought back memories of when I started my mission and how excited I was for everything. Thus the saying you never know what you have till its gone. This past couple of weeks of more of downtime has made me appreciate being a missionary so much more. It has completely reminded me of how much I truly love being a missionary in every aspect of the word! I hope that I can keep this remembrance of excitement and joy for the work for the rest of my mission.

We found an amazing investigator this week. She is a young women who knows the bishop of Thaba Nchu. She already likes the church and its standards and seems very omitted in learning more about our message. we taught the restoration to her and she had good questions about it which shows her genuine interest. It is sad that I will be going back to Lesotho this week and will be unable to continue teaching this family. I hope the other missionaries have success as they bring them unto Christ. It is funny how in such a short time you can really grow to love people. I think it all comes through the service and sacrifice. I think those are the two best ways to love someone. and of course the spirit helps you to see those you teach with spiritual eyes and see there potential and the love the Lord has for them as well. Being a missionary is great for so many reasons and that is a huge one. being able to love people and see who they really are is such a blessing and a half!

It will be nice being back in Lesotho and knowing the area and people. I hope we can use the rest of the transfer to really do some great things in the area.

nothing super exciting or interesting went on this week except for teaching some people and tracting but it was in all a good week I think.

Sadly the computers here are still making it impossible to send pictures but oh well I guess next week you will get a lot :) Its kinda weird taking pictures  because we pull out an actual camera we tried to have this women take a picture for us and she didnt even know how to use the camera and she is only 35 probably. Its funny. we are so used to cameras built into our phones, and we rarely see people with actual cameras besides the big professional ones."

It's so awesome that he was reminded of how much he loves missionary work. I hope he can carry that reminder through the remainder of his mission. It's so true that you never know what you have until it's gone because we tend to take things for granted when we do them every day or they become a habit.

"Sounds like a a fantastic week, I cant wait to go camping and fishing and relaxing. So I dont know how to fly fish, maybe you can teach me sometime :) :)

haha the story of abby getting bitten on the eye made me laugh quite a bit just because I can imagine her freaking out about it haha she is a character for sure.

Zane played top soccer a bit so I have done some stuff with them, its such a great programme! :)

I love how you are always just volunteering to be the one to help in every situation. you always would help the freshman and this and so much more. Your heart is just so big and loving and I admire your desire to include and help others feel safe, and a part of everything. I love you for that!

It is so weird to hear of people going on missions since I have been gone for a year. and there are still going to be more as people a year younger than us leave. Chandler haws just left to his mission which is so weird!

11 more months isnt that insain! could you imagine if I was a sister missionary I would have 5 more months, like its only six months but makes a huge difference."

We'll have lots of pictures this week so I'm definitely looking forward to that :)

11 Months to Go

"This week was quite different. Because of Elder Leonards surgery to get his second cornea transplant so we have been in Bloemfontein the whole week and will be until at least the 26th. Last week he wasn't able to do any missionary work so we were home a lot......

I love being in Bloemfontein because Elder Roberts is here and he is the smartest guy gospel wise that I have ever met in my life. He always teaches us the coolest things about the gospel and any questions that we have he answers them.

I can't upload any pictures because the computers here are super bogus! sorry :(

I guess though because I dont have much to say this week its a perfect oppurtunity to bear my testimony again.

I really do love this gospel. I love when you are sitting at your desk with the scriptures and you just get into it and get going and it becomes so real and you can't put it down. The hour goes by and your companion is now waiting on you so you can study together but you don't want to stop the flow. The scriptures bring real life solutions to real life problems and the greatest peace you can feel. Isn't that something we are all always looking for? peace? In work, in family, in everything? We want joy and peace. Well the answer is really quite simple. it's not necessarily easy but it is simple, we read, we pray and we go to church dang it! We all have the capability to feel with power, the love of God, and to feel close to him. We all have a purpose and the right to know it. The answers all lie within the good book. Pick it up, dust it off and just open it and watch as your life completely changes."

I love his testimony of the scriptures! Lately my testimony of them has definitely been strengthened because I have received such personal revelation while doing my studying. They are written for us and our benefit. I'll just share his personal email to me as well since there aren't any pictures to fill up the space :)

"sounds like quite the busy week for sure. I still love braging about you to people how you have played in other countries and practice with rsl and are so beautiful and perfect. :) haha.

I am glad your quad is feeling better though.

I havnt talked to Kami in awhile I need to see whats going on in her life. You are an awesome big sister by the way, you always have been and I know you dont think so.

God is good, all the time... All the time, God is good. I am so excited for this season to start and hear about how well you will be doing in all your games and how surprised everyone else will be ( not me I know you are going to be better than before) ;)

I miss camping so much, its a thing that people dont really do much here because the areas I serve in havnt been the richest so they already kinda live a camping lifestyle.

Wow that is a powerful experience you had. we dont necessarily get those all to often. So they are special and we need to remember them, and I know you dont struggle writing in your journal so thats a good thing. It makes me so happy to hear about that. The power of revelation is amazing and I love how we can really receive personal revelation, direct communication, from God! its the best!!!!


I dont know why but the past few days I have just felt the impulsing urge to tell you how much I care  about you.  I know you know that but for some reason it dosnt feel enough. I love you. its that simple. thats the fact of the matter. I will do anything for you, to be with you, to make you smile and laugh and get all giddly like you do :) I hear and even teach that people arnt perfect, which is sometimes hard to believe when I think of you. but I do know that people can be perfect for each other, evidence is you. You are perfect for me. you make me the best me that me can be ;) (I know the English is bad there but I think it sounds cute) I cant stand the thought of you being hurt and sad. All of me really does love All of you. and I sure will give my all. Nothing less would suffice, You deserve the sun and the moon and although I may not be able to get it, Ill die trying! You are the most amazing women I have ever met or seen, even heard of. I truly and deeply love you. I dont know why, but I still feel like I havnt said enough or done justice to what I feel. I guess I am not the eloquent poet who can woo women by his tingling words that cause sensations to bubble throughout your skin and very being, but hey I am trying. haha I think of the song by script where he says " those three words, are said to much, then not enough." I love you Hailey Kay Skolmoski!!!!!

:) :) :) :) this is me being giddly too :) :) :) :)"

Oh man. He's the best.

Cops and Surgery

Well it sounds like he had an interesting week! From a couple interactions with the cops to his companion getting surgery on his eye. They will be staying together for another transfer because of the surgery. It has made it so they can't go out and teach much, but he sounds like they are making the most of it and they are just enjoying each others company. It's crazy that it's already time for transfers, that one felt like it flew!

"So funny story I forgot about two weeks ago now. I was driving down town and went to park in a parking spot, now this is Lesotho and I have never seen worse driving in my life.  Partly do to the fact that people buy their licenses from the black market because it can take over year to go through proper channels. So I crossed a solid line (which happens all the time) to get a parking spot. I didn't notice the cops that were there this day and they came up to me and talked a while as they read me my rights and said I was under arrest. Now in Lesotho they don't give tickets they just arrest you.... so we talked a bit more trying to see if there was anything we could do. He later told me I should buy some drinks for him and his colleagues. I of course said I couldn't and he said no as friends... he wanted a bribe of some sort... we continued to talk and then teach about the gospel and he then said that we could go. So I almost go arrested, that was fun. haha

Now more cop stories. We had to take Elder Leonard to the border so he could go to Bloem with some senior couples the get his surgery. As we went to our car after parking in town what I thought was legal we went back to our car to find a nice big clamp on it. eish... I picked up an new motto it goes "would it help" so when I come to my car and see a clamp and want to be angry I think "would it help" if not then why get angry I am only hurting myself so I just laughed as we waited for some other missionaries to take us to the border. we then get their and drive through the parking lot and let Elder Leonard walk across. We then realize that to go back we have to pass the immigration desk... we don't have our passports. We were quite worried that they would not less us back into the country even though we didn't technically leave. luckily we got back over the border then headed to the police office to get the clamp sorted. Now one of the high ranking officers is our district councilor at church so he got the clamp of for free which was very nice. He helps a lot when we get arrested for dumb things. Anyways that's Lesotho and the police haha

Elder Leonards cornea transplant went great! we go for a check up tomorrow. So needless to say we didn't do much this week because he was on bed rest recovery and needs eye drops every two hours, but it went good. We have been enjoying each others company and bum bum bum dah we are staying together another transfer. (In response to me saying to him last week I would be surprised if they changed him if his companion is having surgery.  hahaha)  The weird thing is we are scheduled to be staying in Bloem for 4 weeks. We will see if we end up being that side for that long but we will see. I am excited. I think its good because a change of companions after the surgery would have been hard. So today we leave for Bloem and plan to be their for about a month, we aren't sure why but oh well.

I love the scriptures! a lot a lot..... You can read them or you can READ them! See the difference. when we think about what the time was like, why people said what, why they were where they were. Things like that we start to understand and learn so so much!!!"

"Learned how to make battered chicken! Yum"

I'll also share all of his personal email to me because I loved what he says at the end. I've been struggling with feeling like I'm not progressing in the gospel, and his response to what I said was perfect! The day that I got his email I decided I needed to listen to a conference talk on my way home from Salt Lake so I just had my phone play a random one and it happened to be President Uchtdorf's talk from October 2014 "Living the Gospel Joyfully". It fit perfectly with what I needed and what Mikel said to me, so of course it was no coincidence. I highly recommend reading it or listening to it, it's a good one :)

"He is an awesome mission president, he is super excited to work and loves the outdoors and has a good sense of humor. I like him a lot. we still dont know him super well and how he deals with things but we will see.

 I was thinking the same thing. I will be with you next fourth of july!!! can you believe it! ah it sounds so good :) :) :) dont worry I am really good at relaxing (lazy) so I can help when I am back ;)

the house really looks so cute and perfect! how often do you practice with the rsl womens? I am sure you did great and I have no doubt the you will quickly become better than you ever were before :) you are becoming an adult... it weird... but I think I like it haha.

ah you are watching greys anatomy without me!!! sad news for an enamored heart haha. 

Going into tackles will probably be something that will take time but thats natural and 100 percent normal. dont beat yourself up to much babe I know you got this.

Life is full of ups and downs. but only good experiences. I dont believe there is such thing as a bad experience (I know ive mentioned this before) there are no bad experiences because we learn from them. they may hurt, be sad, and hard but they are for our benefit. 

sometimes we do find ourselves in a rut, even on mission. we do what we are supposed to but find not much gain. I am not sure on the answer to a lot of things. but I know that we can pray for desire, pray for the spirit. and I know our intentions and willingness and heart play a big role. If we do things simply because we think we should or we must then we get the same mediocre response from the performance but if we do something out of love, joy and excitement then we receive 100 times more. we need to find joy in what we are doing. for example if I go to practice and I practice hard but I do it because it is expected of me and I should as to if I go and love it and give my all. in which version do you think I would gain more from the experience. I think we can apply this to life and how we must find joy and love in what we do, especially the gospel. Reading my scriptures isnt good enough. praying isnt good enough. but love is always enough. I dont really know babe, but I am here for you. I love you!"