I'm 20 and Training???

Today I turn 20 years old, and just typing that out freaks me out! It feels like a few short months ago I celebrated my 19th birthday with friends and family back home. Now, I've been on my mission for almost 9 months and my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has grown stronger than I would've ever imagined. Many people say holidays and birthdays are hard on the mission, which they are, but every time I feel down or discouraged, I know I can look to my savior, who gave his life for me, and the least I can do is serve him faithfully for 2 years.

This week has been super stressful, as far as the work goes, but tomorrow is the last day of the transfer. I got a call last night, saying that I'm leaving Mound Fort, and heading to the Ogden West Stake, with the Zone Leaders to train a new missionary! They split their stake, since they're killing it out there, so I'll cover half the stake with my brand new missionary. I'm excited, but super nervous, cause neither of us will know the area!

Monday, we worked out in the morning with Brother Bitton in West Haven, then played speedball with our entire zone. It was fun to be able to play speedball again! Later we went bowling, and just hung out.

Tuesday morning we got a call from Maria, Manuel's wife, saying that they were on the way to the emergency room for his foot, so we quickly drove over there to see how we could help. Manuel is already scheduled to have an amputation on his bad leg in January, and a sore started on his good foot and looked infected, so he went just in case. They gave him antibiotics and told him to take it easy. We went over to his house after, and watched the Prophet of the Restoration movie. Him and Maria really enjoyed it! Later that night we prepared our past district training for the transfer.

Wednesday, Elder Tabler and I gave our last training on having an effective personal study every morning. We had a really good discussion with our district about it, and it was a good last district meeting. I also went with the zone leaders for the day on exchanges, so I got to be with Elder Beckdol in his area. We had some pretty good lessons, and it was a good day.

Thursday, Elder Tabler and I were invited to MLC, which is mission leadership council, and we were there basically all day long being trained by President Jaggi and the assistants.

Friday, we went to a retirement community and helped set up Christmas decorations for them. It was super fun! The old people were very thankful haha. Right after that, we did some weekly planning, which is always fun! Later that night we had a couple lessons, but nothing special.

Saturday was a crazy day. We spent most of the morning with Plain City, buying red solo cups and setting up a #LightTheWorld right over the freeway! We got lots of honks, and many people calling us telling us they saw it haha. It took lots of perfecting! We also had 2 Christmas parties that day, with lots of good food and company. I also got to sit on Santa's lap! It was really fun. That night we got a call from Manuel saying he's heading to the ER again. His foot was swelling really bad, and he was in a lot of pain. We went to the hospital with our Ward Mission Leader and gave him a blessing. I've never seen a grown man in that much pain. It was sad, but he had faith that God would take care of him. Amazingly, he was released that night, and got to go spend time with his daughter for her birthday.

Sunday was a regular day. Went to church and hung out. We also got to bring the sacrament to Manuel, since he's on bed rest for a few days. He was grateful.

That's my update this week. Hope you all have a good week! Love you!

Elder Tyler Greer
Utah Ogden Mission Office
4380 South Orchard Ave
South Ogden, UT 84403