time to change

Well, transfer week has come again. Change wouldn't be unfamiliar if I hadn't spent so much time with Elder Argyle, but Elder Argyle flew home to Seattle this morning—it was inevitable—and I had to get a new companion (Elder Rands, not being a Zone Leader, wasn't going to stay with me, we knew that from the beginning).

This last transfer continued our trend of breaking records. We destroyed the zone baptism record and a few other ones also. In our area we also broke some significant records. It is proof of the dedicated service of the great missionaries that I serve with. I am honored to be with them every day.

Elder Argyle's last week turned out to be a really nice one. We had some great investigators show a lot of faith in the Lord and get baptized. It will be my blessing to be able to stay here a while longer and watch the heavens open up and pour blessings on them, because great blessings always come with great sacrifice and faith. I also found out how to buy a marriage license and we had a nice wedding for one of the couples that was baptized. On Sunday, the branch president asked Elder Argyle to come up at the end of sacrament meeting and share his testimony before leaving. Since he has been in this area quite some time, his testimony was emotional for him, and for most of the members and investigators and recent converts in the branch. We all cried. I've really been grateful to serve with Elder Argyle for so long. I learned new things from him every day.

So the transfer news. We have two awesome district leaders, one is the same from last transfer, and the other, Elder Owens (still in Mesa Zone) is the new district leader. I'm so excited, and he'll do great. Two of our junior companions went senior companion, and we have one brand new greenie and a few companionships staying together. Elder Rands was transferred down to San Luis, and he was so excited. As for my companion—the ridiculously unlikely has happened again and I am companions with new zone leader Elder Snyder, otra vez. All the missionaries in the transfer meeting expressed their awe in some great satisfactory "oohs" when our companionship was announced. I am ecstatic. The Lord has let me serve a long time with some really great people.

Right after transfer meeting, I had to announce loudly to a lobby-full of missionaries that "this is my grandma, nobody panic" before I hugged Grandma Jean. The Lunts took Elder Snyder and I to lunch and picked up another suitcase of things I won't need for the rest of my mission, as well as Elder Argyle's guitar. Elder Argyle will get all his things when I get home, just keep it all in my room for now.

I love you all. I am increasingly grateful for every new day in the mission field. Grandpa Terry asked if I had thought about extending—I wish I could. Each day is so rewarding, I would hate to miss any one of them. The friends I am making here mean so much to me, how can the Lord be so good?

I hope everything is well at home, viewing life through streak-free windows. Sometimes the view is great enough you just have to overlook some spots and appreciate what you see. Until next week!

-Elder Sam Bostwick

loving my mission

I am loving my mission. We have four great baptisms this Saturday, and six others in the zone, which will break our record for baptisms in a transfer—a good way to send Elder Argyle home. We do well in our threesome. The hardest part for me is to try not to compare myself with such great companions. I am definitely dwarfed in the presence of giants.

-Elder Bostwick

this crazy week

I feel like we have been really busy this week, and today is only evidence of that. I already have to be done with emailing. I have spent too much time working on college stuff in the little time I can spend online. Hopefully, step by step some progress can be made. I love you all.

-Elder Bostwick

P.S. Congrats Cecily, that is so exciting! And thanks to whoever was in charge of letting me know the same day!

turn up the heat

While it has been consistently hotter than it would be in Utah, the weather had been for quite some time, surprisingly cooler than a normal Arizona summer. We're talking only 105 as the norm instead of 115. But at last the heat has returned, and Elder Rands just shouts out "I love the heat!" To be honest, it is not quite as impacting the second summer as the first—I survived it once, bring it on.

Due to a lot of things that have to get done with a new missionary (new Spanish missionaries get a "training hour" and a full hour of Spanish study; normal Spanish missionaries only get a half hour daily to study Spanish) it feels sometimes that we spend a lot of time inside our house. Add in last week's zone conference, our service in the Employment Center and English classes, meetings on Sunday with stake and branch presidencies, and our two-hour weekly planning session on Fridays, and I am sick of all of these required hours that we are not proselyting. Elder Rands is learning a lot, and we learn a lot from his great attitude about life and missionary service. Elder Argyle and I keep reminding each other that God had a reason in giving us a new elder at this time in our missions, and so we are patient with all the time inside.

In the end, I want to work. The times I have been happiest on my mission, is when we have worked the hardest. There is no secret to happiness in this life, it is written all over the scriptures to be declared by everyone. Be diligent in your duty to the commandments God gives, and you will be happy. I have found considerably increased happiness on my mission than I ever had before because I have been serving other people, rather than catering to my own ever-selfish wants and desires. We went to the temple today and I am pumped to work, not just here for the rest of my mission, but to continue working hard after the mission, for the rest of my life.

The gospel is so true on so many levels and I feel honored and blessed to learn new things every day, to wonder at the works and wonders of our Father in Heaven. My time's out, but I love you all. Take care.

-Elder Sam Bostwick

some pictures

These are the Bingham buds. Elders Owens (mid) and Meldrum (right) were companions at the time in my Zone in Mesa.


Jose is about to turn in his mission papers. He comes to a lot of lessons with us. Then me, Elders Snyder, Reynolds, and Argyle.


These are all future missionaries. When I took the picture, the one on the left was a recent convert, and the other three weren't members. Now they are all members and will pass the sacrament on Sunday.


At work.


Elder Argyle, Elder Rands, and me.


The branch campout that we got to go on.

clouds, but no rain

We had a great week this last week with an amazing baptismal service. I was able to confirm a ten-year-old kid, which was a first for me. I had never given a blessing of any kind for a child, and it was unique to listen to the language our Father has for young children, so that they can understand what He wants to tell them. With each of our baptisms, we just keep finding new people to teach, whether it be referrals from converts or people that members just start bringing to church or those miracle findings. Our teaching pool just doesn't run dry and we keep a constant flow of new and great people to teach. I am humbled to serve in Mesa.

We've had a few cloudy days, and a bit of wind, but no rain. It has been almost cruel. Although, I am told that monsoon season is near (I missed it last year because I was in San Luis).

We gave one of our final reports to our "boss" in the Employment Center yesterday. We will be serving there until near the end of July, but it seems like we have really gotten a good idea of the potential of the program. In the following weeks, the missionaries and employees in the center are going to help me develop my own resume to begin communicating with a few places in Provo. While I'm there, I might as well make good use of the time, and I know that God with provide for my needs. He provides for us and has promised us time and time again that he that obeys His commandments will prosper in the land.

I am happy here. As much as the heat may rise, and the sun beat down almost as though you could feel it hitting you with physical force, it feels good to spend my time in the service of other people. As I teach the gospel, its wonders open up more and more. Thanks for helping to get me on my mission!

Love,
-Elder Bostwick

!animo!

Someday, I'm going to have to figure out how to type in Spanish. I don't know how to use the language settings on the computer ....

Animo means desire, enthusiasm, or drive and it defines our new missionary. Elder Rands, from the suburbs of Chicago, is huge. He wrestled at Northwestern University in what is a very reputable wrestling program. Physically he is huge, but even better is his huge excitement to be a missionary. With other newer missionaries not having very much drive to learn Spanish well, we have been really grateful and happy to see that Elder Rands wants to talk in Spanish as much as he can. He knows he can't really do the Lord's work until he can speak to the people. Though his speech is now slow, his desire to communicate is visible and endearing and he gets many compliments on his Spanish. By example, he is teaching Elder Snyder's old companion, Elder Reynolds, to step up the passion and speak. It is easy to be happy for Elder Rands's success as he learns many new words each day and gets excited about everything, and telling us how great of missionaries we are. We laugh and tell him he is great too. Truly, his animo is contagious and we have all become more dedicated to the work and we definitely have seen the miracles in even just one week.

We will be having another baptismal service on Friday. Maria Zavala and her kids had their interviews last night and all is ready. We found out that the other area, Elder Reynolds and Elder Burt, will also have a baptism on that day! Elder Burt is good for this area, with a positive way of thinking. Elder Snyder's corneal ulcer weighed down on him and he would say negative things about the area that we knew weren't true, and Elder Burt is proving it. In this first week since he arrived, they have put four people on date.

We were walking in an apartment complex on Friday night. I randomly saw a convert from my days in Queen Creek and we called her mom right there to seek legal help (we need to get a lady divorced and this girl's mom was a judge in Mexico). It was a nice reunion, but even cooler was the fact that as we talked to them, two couples came outside to sit and relax in the early evening that was almost cooling off. As we finished with the girl from Queen Creek, we walked over to talk with the two couples. One couple is from the Pentecostal Church, and they have been taking the other couple to church with them. As we talked, we touched on many doctrinal points, teaching all four of them of the will of God in their lives. Happily, the other couple invited us to come to their home and teach them, and they have remarkable potential to progress rapidly. They were Catholics, converted to another Christian church which turned out to be disappointing, and have just recently started to look to define their faith again. The Lord has prepared them and brought them a long way.

Monday night was supposed to be full of appointments. We needed to have a double exchange to help us teach all the lessons we had scheduled, but after calling everyone in the whole branch, we were supremely denied by every single person. I hope they were all having their Family Home Evening .... Once we got closer to our appointments, they all started to call and cancel. One by one until we almost had nothing to do and we were overall disappointed. Early on, when we had had an appointment scheduled previously, we were contacting an investigator family in an apartment complex that is closed to proselyting. We had received the information for our investigators by referral—the most that is allowed in that particular complex. When our investigators weren't home, we began to leave and were only stopped by an American lady shouting out, "Elders!" She came to us, said she was a member and that the Spirit had her come over to us and she wanted to take us to meet some of her neighbors. We met one neighbor, then another, then went to another, she walked us around and we got several new potential investigators. Even more, she knew our actual investigators and as we finished with her visits, we saw that our investigators had come home so we took her to contact them too. To our surprise, this American member started speaking Spanish when our investigator opened the door, we went in and taught a whole lesson, felt the Spirit strongly and made our investigator's day. There was no doubt that we had made our plans for the day, but that God had made His own plans, and they were better than ours. That lady is a member missionary! And we were so blessed to have her help, even if for just an hour and a half.

I think the gospel gets more true every day. As I discover new truths, my testimony shoots roots deeper and deeper into the soil of the doctrines of the gospel. I find so much happiness in serving these people. It feels so good to sink into bed at night with the spirit as my companion, tired from a full day's work, and ready to sleep truly sound.

I love you, and am happy for the great things you all do. Keep being great! Until next week,

-Elder Sam Bostwick