If only you could put pictures in the title

It's been a pretty hilarious and awesome week haha but a lot of it has just been stuff that's not reallly worth describing, hence the subject line haha but yeah things have been going really awesome! We went on exchanges with the zone leaders this week. elder jensen and I (the zone leader that came here) had a crazy day. We went and stopped by michael and robin (investigators from a couple months ago who had to stop meeting because of some pretty severe health issues) and they're doing a whole lot better, but michael had still been having seizures. We gave him a priesthood blessing and without going in to too much detail it was just a crazy powerful experience for everyone there. And then we met with Bob and Cheryl and they've decided they're ready to get baptized! We're taking them to the visitors center this saturday and they said they want to get baptized the saturday after, we're just waiting for them to pray about it and make sure they're both confident in that decision. They're both experiencing such huge blessings, and it's so great to be able to work with them and help them with their progression. We've had a couple new investigators flowing through the pool, two of which are pretty dang solid and we're exctied to see where they go haha and yeah.

On saturday we did a "Random Acts of Kindness" day in the Quatama ward and it was a lot of fun. We split up into groups, and our group went and gave bubbles and flowers to kids and moms in walmart, we gave microwave popcorn to people at a redbox machine, we heart attacked the front door of a 9 yr old that got baptized last year, we wrote inspirational sidewalk chalk messages outside of peoples homes, and we went and brought root beers to a family whos last daughter just left for college #newemptynesters haha it was a fun day and the ward really loved it.

I also got to speak about repentance in sacrament meeting yesterday which was an amazing experience. It's really humbling and also rewarding to be able to bear my testimony about such fundament gospel truths and be able to feel what Heavenly Father wants the members of the ward to hear. I've spoken multiple times and sang a couple musical numbers, but this one was just especially dope haha so yeah. I hope y'all are doing awesome and enjoying summertime.

Keep it lit

Elder Bond

Mr. Worldwide

What's up friends?

 It's been a pretty dope week haha I've been serving as a district leader and we've been really trying to hype up the zone and so we set up a zonewide finding competition and set some super hyped baptismal goal to help stretch us and some other goals to help us along the way and we've all been KILLING it. Us and a set of sisters went whiteboarding where we just ask a simple question on a whiteboard and go around and ask people to write their answers on the board and teach people who show a bit of interest. We got three new investigators and gave out seven Books of Mormon in less than two hours haha and it was just a really fun experience.

Then on a bit of a more sad note we have an investigator in the hospital :( SHe's getting open heart surgery which is scary, but we were able to go visit her and it really brightened her mood haha. 

We also went and visited Bob and Cheryl and had an AWESOME Lesson. We decided to try a bit of technological fanciness and we projected part of the October 2009 general conference onto their 70" flat screen TV and it was a super spiritual experience and we had been praying and planning on trying to recommit them to a baptismal date but the spirit prompted us to wait. Well the next day we were planning and knew we had to be back there so we rolled up in the evening and Cheryl was standing outside and was like "you guys are just in time! I need your help!" and we helped her plant some flowers and work on her garden haha Bob just messed up his back and shes pretty weak haha and we were there for almost 40 minutes just chatting and helping them to know that we genuinely care about them and it worked wonders for them. They're really seeing the blessings of the gospel in their lives, and its awesome. 

Then that evening we decided to try something new. We set a side an hour where we would all be out on the streets as a distrcit. We fasted for breakfast and lunch the day of and prayed to know where God wanted us to be and set a goal to find 3 New Investigators as a distrcit within that hour. Well ELder Measel and I gave out 4 Book of Mormons and found 3 potential people to teach, but then two of the sisters in the district accomplished our district goal and got 3 New Investigators in that hour! It was so cool haha we're all so pumped and really seeing Heavenly Father help us to accomplish our goals. Then I sang a solo musical number in sacrament meeting yesterday and it was super spiritually uplifting and we had this asian lady roll up that we had never met before so I started chatting with her over google translate and her name is Alyce and she wants to get baptized!! We were just like what the heck haha so she'll be in San Franscisco this week but we got in touch with a guy in another stake who speaks mandarin and we're going to have him come translate for a lesson with her. It's going to be really cool haha. 

Then after our 7 hour block of church we were just exhausted so we went and took a quick power nap at our place and then felt kind of bad about it so we prayed and just asked that we could still be made tools and so we went and stopped by this potential investigator and she wasn't home but we met this dude named Bob Terry at the mailbox and he was just like "yo. My family and I have been looking for the right church for my entire life and haven't found it yet" and we were like "well we have the answer!" and we have a lesson with him on thursday. God is working miracles through us and it's really awesome. We also did a wafle breakfast this morning with some other missionaries and it was tight.

So yeah. I love you all. Have an awesome week :)

It’s Been a Minute

Wow. Hey everybody haha sorry for the radio silence the past couple of weeks. Our P-day got bumped to wednesday last week so that we could go to the temple and I didn't really have any time to email. But it's been an insane couple of weeks. The work has been kind of slowing down, and we've been struggling a bit to make things happen. There's a natural ebb and flow in the work, but we're doing our best to be out and being effective with our time and being where Heavenly Father wants us to be. He really does have a way of putting others in our path, and we've seen lots of instances where we're in the right place in the right time to bless someones day, be it a member, nonmember, or whoever Heavenly Father knows need a boost that day. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the ultimate remedy for any cure, and being able to live and breathe it is so rewarding, even when there are hard times for us personally or for our areas/wards.

We had two amazingly powerful lessons the past few days that I wanted to share. So we met with Susie the other day after about two weeks of not being able to see her. We always work in her yard before our lessons, so we went out and worked and then came in and sat down for our lesson. We had a pretty bomb lesson plan about covenants prepared for her and her husband, but I felt like we just needed to make sure they were doing okay. We chatted for a bit and I tried to kind of lead the discussion to how they were doing personally and they ended up opening up about some pretty serious struggles. I won't go into detail, but they're just not doing too hot right now. So the lesson plan went out the window and we had a very spiritual, personal discussion about Heavenly Father's hand in our lives. We read through parts of Alma 37 with them and then I felt prompted to just sing a hymn for them so Elder Measel and I sang Come Follow Me and then just bore some simple testimonies. It was an awesome lesson, and the next day we were able to go back (Apparently they've been getting snakes so I got to go into their crawl space and look for more snakes 👍) and she said that being able to feel the spirit with us like that made all the difference in the world for them. Then the next day we had a lesson with Bob and Cheryl and the same type of thing happened. We had a baller lesson plan, but the spirit directed otherwise haha Cheryl opened up about some issues she's been having in her relationship with her mother and how it's affecting her and so we focused on that. All of these scripture kept coming to mind and so we would just read through them together and discuss. Then Mosiah 4:10-12 came to mind, which are some of my favorite scriptures, and I knew something good was about to happen. We read them with her (check them out) and I made her a simple promise that Heavenly Father not only knows what is happening in her life, but He knows exactly how it is making her feel and that He is standing ready to bless her. With that in mind we invited her to pray with us and try out the promise King Benjamin makes in those verses and wow. What a prayer haha it was POWERFUL. That lesson ended up being over two hours long. Whoops.

All in all it's been a long and hard but also good couple of weeks. I look forward to getting to bed at night but I also look forward to getting up and doing my best to work in the morning. If you're struggling with really anything in your life right now, I'd invite you to turn to the scriptures and look for something you can do and to look for the blessings that are promised if you do that thing. Then I'd invite you to DO that thing and I know that if you have eyes to see God's hand in your life, you will recognize the blessings that you were promised in the scriptures. This is the process I've adopted lately, and it's given me a new perspective of what faith truly is. God will always bless us, and recognizing our blessings is an awesome way to build our faith that we serve a Just, Merciful and Loving God.

I love you all, and I hope you're doing well. This gospel is true. The scriptures are true, and I know that by studying and by doing we can receive the grace of Jesus Christ and be made strong. Have a great week

With love,

Elder Bond

1. We had another car wash

2. The temple was SO GOOD

3. We found a dope park and had some fun with the panorama thingy that our tablets do haha