Posts

Last One

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  To everyone who still remembers my name: I'm coming home. I haven't written one of these in a while but I would like to share one last update and express my thoughts and feelings about serving as a full-time missionary and representative of Jesus Christ.  I started my mission in Australia, serving in 3 different areas and with 10 different companions. I learned a lot there, especially about myself as I did all I could to share the gospel with the people there. There I was faced with many challenges and many opportunities to grow. I always felt an attitude of positivity and strength in the Lord. I loved my time there and have a special love for the Chinese people I worked alongside. I am deeply grateful for my mission call to Sydney Australia. Halfway through I was sent home where I stayed for 2 months before being reassigned to the California Arcadia mission. The entire time I was home, I missed being a missionary and I was excited to come back out, even though I knew missio...
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Back in Business

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  Hey everyone, Hope you are well. Things over here in California are amazing. The virus is a non-event; although we have to wear masks and everything, the Lord's work can't be stopped. Somehow the entire mission simultaneously decided that we don't really care about making excuses. When out and about, it would be easy to say things like 'we shouldn't talk to that person because we don't want to spread the virus', but the desire to share the gospel always pushes us to do it.  Many missionaries have already gotten the virus and recovered from it, so now they are like a branch of super soldiers. They are immune and also can't spread it so when we are in our district meetings and stuff they don't even have to wear masks. Part of me wants to get COVID just so I can have the immunity too.  The work moves forward. We had a baptism for our friend Oz last week. He experienced a total 180 from when we found him to when he got baptized. He started out by sayin...
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This is AWESOME

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  Hey everybody,  It's Christmas time which means great things for missionary work.  Time is flying by, I am feeling lost in the work. I want to make the most of every moment that I have left. My current companion Elder Angus and I are doing really well. We have been striving to rely on the Lord in all that we do and become better missionaries every day. It's so exciting to see the blessings that come when we do our best to be faithful and obedient. All of my worldly cares have fallen by the wayside as I try to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I'm happier than I've ever been in my mission and having amazing experiences. I feel so grateful to be serving during this time. Some cool miracles from recent weeks: Efrain got baptized! This guy actually found the missionaries, came up to us on the street and said hi. Such a good guy, he's about 20 years old. He lost his mom when he was little and when he learned about the Plan of Salvation and the fact that he can se...
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Long time no see

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  Hey everyone,  It's been a while, hope you didn't miss these emails too much. The truth is, I've just been grinding so hard out here that I've hardly had time to write one. But some awesome things have happened in the past few weeks.  I've been doing this whole AP thing for a while now and at first I thought it would be a crazy different experience but honestly my companion and I decided to just be normal missionaries instead of sit around the office all day. So we do have meetings with President throughout the week to talk about the mission and we pick up and train the new missionaries and do a bunch of other stuff that needs to get done, but our main focus is just in our area. We are still in the YSA ward which has been a blast. So no, there has been no hot-tubbing with the mission president or special AP Ferrari.  It has been fun to travel to all the zones and meet every single missionary in the mission, and work in so many different areas and have new experien...
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Saying Goodbye

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  Hey everybody, this past little while has been pretty great. Elder Yang and I have gotten into a great rhythm and started teaching a lot. We've also put 3 people on date for baptism and we're really excited about them. It's crazy because even though we are stuck inside I'm literally teaching and baptizing more than I ever did in Australia. The Lord has it all planned out and I am starting to see it unfold recently. Elder Yang and I sat down on Saturday for 8 hours straight and taught lessons through the phone. It really is a huge difference in missionary work and it seems like we didn't need the Covid situation to change in order to be successful, we just needed to change.  Focusing on positivity and keeping a balance of work and fun has really helped during this time. There's still some craziness from the roommates - recent events have included shaving their legs from ankle to thigh, throwing up after eating straight peanut butter, and setting armpits on fire...
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Happy Birthday Mom

  Dear Mom, Happy birthday to the person I have always been able to trust and always felt loved by. You have had the biggest impact on me of anyone in my whole life and I'm so grateful for you. The older I get and the more other family situations I see, the more deeply grateful I am for you and the unconditional love you have always showed me. You have loved me in a way that didn't just let me do whatever I wanted , but pushed me to realize my talents. You have loved me in a way that you always listen to me and give me advice that has changed the way I view the world. Mom, I honestly hope to marry someone as amazing as you because if I do I know my marriage will be pretty great. Thank you for your humor, your genuinity, your good taste, your love, support, your example and your testimony. I really couldn't ask for a better mother and I hope you have an amazing birthday :) Love Sawyer 
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A white guy from China

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This week we had some awesome miracles and met some awesome people. We're getting more and more into a rhythm in quarantine.  We got a referral from some Elders in Texas. Turns out one of them was my boy from the MTC so that was pretty awesome. It was fun to reconnect and realize that both of us actually speak Chinese now. Anyway, he ended up introducing us to this sweet family with 3 kids. They are really prepared and have even been to church before. They had been taught by the Elders in Texas but they live here in our area so we have started teaching them now. The mom asks such good questions and it's been really rewarding to help her see how the gospel can help her burdens as a mother of 3 kids in quarantine. We also finally got in contact with a guy named Jake who we've been reaching out to ever since I got here to California.  We just had his number and heard he was interested in the gospel. We finally ended up meeting with him in a park this week and rea...
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