Last minute talk, Sun burnt face, tree climbing, weed eating on a Saturday

So I got the sun burnt face from climbing the tree and trimming it down. And from weed eating all on my service Saturday. We started the service at 9 in the morning and didn't leave until 5pm. What we would do is take turns with the weed eater and being up in the trees. A less
active in our ward needed her yard fixed up because her HOA was going to fine her. For the record I don't like HOA. And so we had to get all of it done that day. Her trees were mulberry trees. For those of you who don't know about those trees, they get very very tall and very long
branches. So we climbed up I believe to be 30 feet into these trees and began to trim them. And then when we weren't in the trees we were on the ground weed eating. These weeds were only about 2 feet high.
Nothing too crazy! So when we finally finished and got home. I noticed something happened to me that has never happened to me before. My face looked like a lobster. Ha I didn't know what to do. It didn't hurt.
Luckily because we are in Arizona olivera plants (sorry can't spell) are everywhere! I healed in a day! Elder Parker though did not! Lol he is still very red and in a lot of pain. I think I am now 2 shades darker than I was before! I'm really going for the Mexican look! 

So the last minute talk! At about 8:45 Sunday morning our bishop comes up to me and says that I am needed to give a talk because the other person could not. I had to give it on the parable of the Good Samaritan. It was awesome. Just before I got up to speak there was a
musical number that brought the spirit so strong. 
Well that was my week love you all! Email me!

Another Service Saturday

Sadly no cows this time. But we did do 3 or 4 services this past Saturday. The first one was really fun. So we called three priests in our ward and we went over to a part member family's house and dug a 30 foot trench. It was about 3 feet deep and a foot wide. And with Arizona
ground it's like digging in cement. So to soften up the ground we used the hose and poured water all over the ground. And it actually worked!
So the 5 of us knocked it out in a short time. Then we dug another trench but this one was only 5 feet wide and 4 inches deep so a lot easier. Then we mowed the only lawn in Arizona. Brought back a lot of memories. We started at 8 in the morning and didn't finish until 4:30 pm. And that day our dinner had canceled, but luckily we got a call from a member inviting us to eat. She cooked us Dorito casserole.
I loved it.

Elder Studyvin

Service Saturday, A Cowboy Hat and No More Service Shoes!

So just a fair warning to start this letter off. I am in the slowest English area in the mission. So we basically have no investigators, so to make up for it we do service for the members a lot. So this letter will only be about this last service project we had with a member who owns a dairy farm. :DSo this story starts on Friday night. I was about to go to bed at around 10:25. (I was kind of tired), and Elder Parker told me "Hey we will be waking up a little earlier in the morning." I thought to myself wait why but was to tired to question so I fell asleep. Well the alarm went off at 3 in the morning. I was so upset to say the least. I got told, "Hey wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt if you have one. Oh and you probably should wear some good working shoes." I
thought to myself wait I only have jeans and my tennis shoes which are okay working shoes. So I got dressed and the other missionaries we live with were coming with us as well. We drive for a least 30 mins away. I was so lost. We showed up to the dariy farm and I was so excited. So the member's name is JT. He told us everything we needed to
do. And my first thought was my shoes are going to die... and they did... so for the next hour maybe two we were feeding all of the cows. He has close to a thousand. We had his normal workers there to help us. So the last part of the service we had to take all of the calves from their little pens which only held one of them at a time. We had
to take them all out and herd them into a semi truck so they could be taken to some other dariy farm that had bought them. We all took turns which shift we had whether that was just herding them to the truck or being inside the truck doing all of that. It was hard, but a lot of fun!! So after we finished doing all of that, the member TJ said that
everytime he has the elders help him he choose one of us to give a prize to. He said the award for the best cattle herder goes to Elder Studyvin. I thought,"Wait what I have never done this in my life how is this possible." So my award was a cowboy hat! It's pretty sweet! So we were driving home and I was taking a look at my shoes.. my left shoe
doesn't have a sole anymore and the right one had a huge hole on the top... I was upset that I don't have service shoes anymore but I am happy I got the hat!!

So transfers happened last week...

So this last transfer was a big one... Almost the whole mission got affected. Long story short. I am not a Spanish missionary, I am not finishing Elder Johnson's training, and my area is out in the middle of nowhere!
My new companion is Elder Parker. We actually go home at the same time. He's awesome.


First week in English. We slaughtered a pig. Played lots of board games. Taught a few lessons.
Slaughtering the pig was a lot of fun. We got to watch it die and then gut it and clean it and then the next day we cut the pieces of the meat. I wanted the bacon and the ribs.


So we have a member that is a stay at home dad and he always asks us if we have time to play a board game. Because his kid is only 3 our "dad" gets really bored so we play a few times.
We are teaching a lot of part member families. And we also are covering three wards.

Note from mom: He's in Goodyear, AZ which is west of Phoenix.