The Great Texas Turtle Rescue of 2017

Hey Y'all! 

So this is the update:

I'm still in Oak Ridge. BUT, I’m now covering Imperial Oaks as well with my new companion, Elder Mcdonald! He was covering Imperial Oaks before, and now we’re covering both areas together! It’s a little tricky sometimes.

My trainer also trained Elder Mcdonald, which makes us ‘brothers' which is kind of fun. Because the mission had a bunch of missionaries finish this last transfer, and not many new ones come in, we’re down on missionaries! So there are a few places double covering. 

Here are a few pictures from this week. This is our new district, what our new area looks like (dark blue is members, yellow is investigators, red are investigators, grey are former investigators, light blue are less-active members) and a turtle I rescued in the road a little while ago. Fox tie + turtle = so good.

I hope everyone is doing well in WA and elsewhere!

Elder Troy

It's better to wait to be satisfied, than be immediately disappointed!

Hey Y'all!

We did it! We easily beat our goal to double this ward's new
investigators for the transfer.

We 'Dropped' our most promising investigator, Jon, a week ago. He
wouldn't keep his commitments to come to church, so we communicated to
him that because he wouldn't act we couldn't continue teaching him. We
can't help him if he won't accept our help!

Then this week he slunk into sacrament meeting and tore out afterwards
before we could talk to him. What!? C'mon Jon.

If he comes again, we'll reach out to him and figure out what changed.

This week was Elder James' last! He gets on a plane on Wednesday, and
I say goodbye to him tomorrow! There's a picture of him holding a
goofy pose in this week's pictures.

It has been weird helping him prepare to leave! When I first got on my
mission, I so looked forward to the day that I could say I had
finished an honorable full time mission. Now I feel like I need more
time than I have, because I'm not progressing fast enough!

This week we ate out with a Member named Bro. Leyva. One of the things
we decided was that it was better to wait for good food than get fast
and poor quality food.

It's better to wait to be satisfied that be immediately disappointed!

That's my deep thought for the week, haha!

Have a great week Y'all.

Elder Derek Troy

Steel wool and slow shutter speed = fun P-Day shenanigans.

Elder James striking a P-Day pose.

Just ’sploring…

“…aaaaand they called it puppy loooooooovvvvvve!…” 

Zone buddies.

Zone Conference.

Witness by the Spirit

Hey Y'all! 

It was another great week in Texas, the weather was beautiful! But next week is Elder James's last before going home, and Texas is trying to give him a summer send off. It's going to hit 95 F and 60% humidity this week, and will be SUPER hot for a couple of days. Hopefully, we'll be in a fridge at the time.

We're volunteering twice a week at the Montgomery county food bank, and having a blast there. We mainly work in 'produce recovery' which is where you step into a refrigerated section of the warehouse and sort through produce that's been donated by grocery stores like H-E-B (a Texan store) and Walmart. We throw away thousands of pounds of rotten fruits and veggies every week and save hundreds more. It's interesting to step out of the 35-40 degree fridge into the 90 degree warehouse!

This week a young man named Jack visited us at church with some great questions. At 16, he had the best knowledge of his Bible that I had ever seen, from any member or non-member, bishop, pastor, or preacher. The boy knew his bible forwards and backwards. His first question was about how Joseph could have seen both God the Father and Jesus in a vision, which seemed unique, so I pointed him to the Martyrdom of Steven. After that question though, we were totally unprepared. He had SO MANY questions and concerns. He had read the Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Bible through several times. He had come to the conclusion that the Bible was true but everything else was false. He denounced the idea that the spirit could bear witness of the truth through a feeling. 

Finally at the end of our conversation, a great and revelatory truth hit us all. SO MANY people have read the scriptures - Book of Mormon and Bible - and come away without a testimony. The only way we receive a witness is by the spirit. So long as Jack was unwilling to receive an answer from the spirit, it would not come.

We challenged him to listen to the talk 'blueprint of Christ's church' by Tad R Callister, and hope to see him again someday! I think President Mortensen would like to meet this extraordinary boy.

Here are a few pics of us with a member's 'collection', and my exchange with Elder Byrd. I know that the haircut is terrible, but it was free from a member, so I'm grateful.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Derek Troy

Exchanges with Elder Byrd

"Admiring" a member's Texas-style gun collection.

When in Texas...

How's YOUR language?

Hey Y'all! This week in Texas went a little bit better than the last one.

We found 5 people this week who want to learn more about the gospel! It's always good to feel that your efforts are bearing fruits. So with two weeks left in the transfer, we've found 14 people in this area when last transfer only 9 were found. Our goal was 18 people for the transfer, which we should safely achieve!

This week I wanted to share about a topic I've been studying: language.

The Savior taught us the importance of our language when he said:

'But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.' (Matt 15:18)

In Jesus's last night in mortality, when he was taken away by soldiers to be judged, his disciple Peter followed to the palace of the Sanhedrin. Jesus predicted that before the night was over, Peter would deny him three times.

Peter, not wanting to be discovered as a disciple of the man who would shortly be executed, did deny knowing him, though he obviously cared enough about the savior to put his life in jeopardy and follow after him.

But how he is discovered as a disciple the third time - and how he denies him - is interesting. A group of men accuse him of being a disciple of Jesus by how he talks. "And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee." Probably a combination of his clean and reverent language and his Galilean accent tipped them off to his true identity as a disciple. In a panic to disguise himself, Peter "began he to curse and to swear". After this third denial, the cock crowed.

When Peter didn't want to represent the savior, he chose to curse and swear. 

In our own lives, when we speak, are we recognizable before the world as disciples? What do we joke about? What do we boast about? We must look beyond just swearing. When we use words like 'crap' and other replacement words, we're obeying the letter but not spirit of the law.

Jesus teaches us that what comes out of our mouths proceeds from our hearts. When we gossip, our hearts are full of covetousness, envy, and pride. When speak to glorify violence, our hearts are full of murder. 

In our day, we marvel at the seeming permanence of what is said on Facebook, and how thoroughly documented everything is in our world. It seems so sad that someone can share one stupid tweet and get massacred by our shame society. And yet, there never was such a thing as words we could say and just forget.

Matt 12:36 "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."

I hope to always strive for language representative of the savior. I challenge everyone reading to do the same.

I hope everyone is well in WA, UT, and elsewhere!

'Til next week

Elder Derek Troy