Elder Bronson Scott Puzey

This week I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Hartzell in the Silver Lakes area. Towards the end of the exchange we discover that for a short period of time he was actually living just a few minutes from my Grandparent's house in Eastern Washington. He became friends with the neighbor that I used to play with growing up. So that's cool! Elder Kunz and I were able to go up to Barstow to be there for a baptism. This is the first person that I've interviewed to be baptized so it was exciting to share that moment with Minnie. On Saturday we were able to go to a fireside with Michael Mclean. For those of you who don't know who that is, he is a songwriter and has created many things for the church and his own projects (including 40 albums). The reason that I love him so much is that my family was able to go to one of his plays, "The Forgotten Carols" a few years back. Ever since then I have loved listening to the soundtrack come Christmas time. He talke...

So this week one of the Samoan Bishop's sons came home from his mission. He served in South Africa somewhere so he started his journey home on Monday and was picked up from the airport on Wednesday. The homecoming party was on Saturday and it was a pretty good time. Just like every Samoan party ever there was a TON of food ranging from shrimp to taro to chicken. It was really cool to see all the family members come together and celebrate the accomplishment. After being in Africa for two years the returned missionary was a little more skinny than the rest of the family but a few months home might fix that. The best part of the party was the Samoan Elvis that graced us with a few songs. I'll send a video of it but I'm sure the sound quality won't do it justice.  In other news, the washer in our house broke so this morning we had to go to the ghetto to find a laundromat to use. Luckily we made it out of there with the remainder of our quarters and all our white shirts....

So there were a few miracles that happened this week that I wanted to share, I know they were some birthday gifts from my Father in Heaven. So Friday night we had dinner with the two other missionaries that we live with and it was at a members house from our Adelanto ward. We didn't know this until we got there but it was actually her birthday so I got an early birthday cake and some free homemade soap. So thank you Sister White! After dinner, Elder Kunz and I go to a referral that we had gotten and she is a very solid investigator, she has already accepted baptism and the whole reason that she wanted to meet with us is because she is going through a tough time and she has seen in some family members, how the gospel has blessed them. On Saturday (my birthday) I was on exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Richins. So around lunch time we discover that there is very little to eat at their apartment so we decide to go to the new Café Rio that opened the day befo...

First off I want to thank everyone who sent me an email wishing me a happy birthday! It was much appreciated.  So with the recent transfer we didn't actually have too much change. Everyone in the Hurtado House is the same which we all expected. And we only had two Elders get exchanged in our District. For the most part it is the same old song and dance which has it's pros and cons.  Over this last week I've been reminded that sometimes in the gospel we need to be friends to people, and when I say sometimes I mean 24/7 and when I say people I mean everyone. A couple of experiences that we've had will help to illustrate why I was reminded of this. Recently Elder Kunz and I decided to try and do more work in the Samoan ward, they do feed us every night after all. So we've been visiting a lot of families in the Samoan ward recently, less-actives, very-actives and everywhere in-between. We have not only been able to meet a lot more of our Samoan members that...

As I'm sure many of you know, this last weekend was conference weekend which was super awesome! It was a nice break from the normal weekend routine that we have as missionaries. Normally we're at church for nine hours because we cover two wards and also have meetings to go to so only having four hours was a good change. This year I tried to guess what the names of the Talks are going to be to help me summarize the talks in one sentence or a few words. We'll see if I was even close. Obviously everyone gets something different out of Conference because we are taught by the Spirit. For me I heard a lot about being humble, sustaining church leaders, the Book of Mormon and using the Atonement for change. Something that's different is what we all gain from Conference and from the talks but what's all the same for everyone is that the Prophet and the Apostles are called of God for everyone. As the Restored Church of Jesus Christ we have many unique messages that we ar...