May 28th, 2012

           This past week has been a huge change in everything about me and my service! It has been a great experience and has been a real special part of my mission so far!

Last week we had zone conference! It was a great experience but during it Elder Bradley and I discovered that we need to change. The last couple of weeks we have been getting lazy and complacent in our level of service. We wouldn't do anything bad but we just weren't trying very hard. We had stopped getting up right on-time, we had slacked a bit on our studies. We were just waiting for good things to come our way instead of going and getting them! It was bad! After Zone Conference we both knew we had to change but we still did not have the desire to change, we needed a kick in the butt.

It is amazing how much our Father in Heaven knows us and knows exactly what we need! He knew what would give me the fire to start to change and He knew that if I started then Elder Bradley would be right there with me! My biggest pet peeve in the world is someone telling me that I can't do something, most people know this and my Heavenly Father really knows this. On Tuesday night we got a call from Elder Bradley's MTC Companion who is serving up in Mesa, he let us know that someone in our branch had called his branch president in Mesa and commented that Tucson needed an actual deaf missionary, not 2 hearing missionaries who learned sign language but don’t know the real deaf community. The Mesa branch president called his mission president and told him about it. Elder Bradley's MTC companion heard about it because he is deaf and told us.

What a slap in the face! When I heard about this I was livid! I don't get offended often but that was bad! They were basically saying that me and Elder Bradley could not do the work in Tucson! The last six missionaries in Tucson have all being hearing missionaries! I feel like this branch needs to learn to accept us as part of their community and rely on the prophet’s decision to send us here? I mean, it is the Lord who sent us here; they need to have some faith in that.

Anyway I was mad! As soon as I heard this I developed the attitude of “I am going to do everything I can to be the best missionary you have ever seen and I will show you that your whole deaf supremacy theory is wrong! It doesn't matter if anyone is deaf or hearing it all depends on the person!” I said that aloud to Elder Bradley, he laughed. That is when it struck me that God does know me enough to know that is exactly what I needed to hear to make me want to change! I just had to get mad enough to try and prove everyone wrong!

So.......we started to work! The next day at district meeting Elder Barrot gave his training that matched our needs perfectly! It was about being apathetic and complacent and how to change that! After district meeting, Elder Bradley and I sat down for a few hours and discussed where we were, where we wanted to be, and how we were going to get there. We wrote down everything we were doing that was keeping us from it and committed to giving that up! It has been really hard but since that moment we have been how missionaries should be! Our goal is complete obedience! For example, we are asked to back the truck with one of us “spotting” the driver so we can be safe. There is nothing more humbling then a grown man standing in back of a truck and directing in broad daylight in an empty parking lot! haha 

Now that we have decided to work hard I am so much happier and alert all the time! I thought I was having the time of my life before but now I am just always happy and always smiling! It has been a great experience and a great change and we have both learned so much from it! We are hoping to start to see the fruits of our sacrifice soon! We have seen so many blessings that have already come from our new attitudes! We received 3 referrals this weekend so we are hoping some of them work out! We are trying to go see Rita again (the lady we followed home a few weeks ago and then spoke with her last week) but she hasn't been home recently. We are also hoping Danny will let us start teaching him. Danny lives with Tom (the less active member that I found recently).

I feel that we are not alone in this; I would like to challenge you all to learn from our experience. Think about the things that are keeping you from further developing your relationship with your Father in Heaven and show your faith by giving those things up! You will feel a difference in your life that you would never imagine could happen!

Till next week!

Elder Banner

May 22, 2012

Hello everyone,

We had Zone Conference this week, and I made a fool of myself during it! Ha-ha

Thursday, we had Zone Conference at our Stake Center. We had the East Tucson Zone (ours), the South Tucson Zone, and the Saurita Zone all there. It was a great meeting and we were able to get up and talk during it! First, President Killpack spoke and he was followed by his wife. After that the AP's gave a training on finding new people. This was all great until right in the middle we had a break. During this break, President came up to the two of us and said that he wanted us to give talks when the break was over about deaf people and how they could help us find them. That is great and we were super excited to be able to do this! Hopefully this would help us in our work! We had about 5 minutes to quickly prepare, easy, so the two of us decided what we would each like to share and it was going to be great. The problem was that we didn't actually go up right after the break. Sister Killpack got up and gave an additional training on medical things which took a while and in that time I forgot what I was going to say!  Ha-ha  It was fine and I was able to talk about what I needed too, mostly. Luckily Elder Bradley spoke after me and was able to mention everything that I failed to. It was great! We taught everyone how to get us an address from deaf people so hopefully we can get some good referrals from all of them!

So today was 109 degrees! It is getting so hot now and I think that I am just on a Sign Language mission because my Father in Heaven knows me and knows that I am a baby and need to be able to drive around in a truck instead of out on a bike. Ha-ha. We'll see if I ever have to be on a bike. I love our truck more than ever!

We may have a new investigator! It is that lady that we stalked home a few weeks ago! Ha-ha We finally went to her house and tried to contact her. She came out and spoke with us for a long time and then we suggested that we could help her with anything with her yard or anything like that and she asked for our contact information so hopefully something comes out of this.

Things are going alright here!

Love you!

Elder Banner

May 14, 2012

So this letter will be short because I just spoke with my family yesterday, so I told them everything that I have been up to! First, it was great to hear them and to see them again. We were able to Skype home yesterday and it was awesome! I was so excited to see them again! I loved the experience of speaking with them!

So this week we had a lot of members to visit which is always great, but the unique thing that happened this week was that we had an appointment up in Safford. Safford is about a two hour drive from Tucson so….Road Trip!! It was fun! We went up there yesterday morning, spoke with a deaf guy we were meeting and then went down to the temple. The guy is super nice! It was great getting to know him and talk with him for awhile. Due to the distance I don't know how much we will be able to go up and see him, but the Lord always provides. One of the missionaries in that ward (recently transferred) knows a little sign, enough to talk to him. In addition to that a lady that lives in the ward is an ASL interpreter by profession and her whole family signs as well! Even though we will not be go up as often as we like, we will go up every once and a while and while we are not there, those Elders along with that family will be able to teach him! 

After that visit we went to the temple and took some pictures of the grounds. It was so beautiful! All of the flowers are out and they had a nice contrast with the desert around them! I love going to the temple even if it is just a short trip around the grounds! After that we went to a music shop up there just to look at guitars and play a few. While we were there I found a twelve-string Fender guitar that is really nice and was at an amazing price so I bought it!  Don't worry; there is nothing apostate in my actions being that we are allowed to have guitars!  So now I have another guitar!  

When were heading back, Elder Bradley and I came up with the great idea of stopping in the middle of the desert and taking some pictures with it!  There was a great spot that had lots of huge rocks all around the ground so we took some funny pictures!  While we were there I ran into a bush; not hard really, just a little bump.  Being that this is Tucson and "everything is either dead or wants you dead" that was “no bueno”. That little bush poked me pretty good, and cut my leg enough to draw quite a bit of blood. But even better then that is the bush's points are poisoned! Three days later my leg still feels like I was hit by a two-by-four! The day it happened my leg was so numb for the whole day! Oh you have to love Arizona! Fun Stuff!

Well I hope things are going well with all of you!

Love you all!

Elder Banner

May 8th, 2012

Hello everyone,

I am finished with my training! I have been in the field for two transfers already! And what is even crazier is I hit my six month mark next month! Where has the time gone?!

Seriously, I feel like I just got out here!! I can't believe it has already been that long! Oh man I guess the time really does fly when you are having a good time! I am having the time of my life here! I love being out on a mission and almost everything about it! Granted there are always things that could be better but those cannot even detract from everything else that is freaking amazing here! I love this mission!

This email is going to be kind of short; it was a very slow week! One real cool thing that happened is a continuation of one of my last emails. So when I went on exchanges with Elder Bowen and we found those new deaf people and spoke to them for awhile we left obviously pretty excited! Well we went back and contacted them this week, this time with Elder Bradley, and during our conversations with one of them we came to realize that he is actually already a member! He is a less active member that the missionaries having been trying to find for about two years! He moved and the Branch failed to get his new address. He agreed to have us come back and visit him often which is great! Also his roommate is not a member and we can teach him if we can ever catch him at home! So with that it was a pretty good day!

Another funny story: So the other day we were driving with Elder Bowen and Elder Franzen and Elder Bradley looked over and noticed that the people next to us were signing! That is a very rare occurrence so we did what all good missionaries would do.......follow them at about 50 yards until they got home and then wrote down their address while driving by! Hahahaha Ya I felt so cool, in a suit and tie with dark sun glasses stalking a car at a safe distance! Look out MIB I'm cooler then you now! It was really fun and we are the only missionaries that can do stuff like that! It was great!

Other than that things are going slow now. We are trying to find some more people for us to teach but that is really hard for us! We are trying to involve the Lord more so we will find someone else to teach soon!

I love you all! Have a happy Mother’s Day!

Elder Banner!

May 1st, 2012

One down, hopefully many more to go!!

This week was a very good week!! This weekend Danielle was baptized!!

That is what this letter is going to about because this has been the highlight of the mission so far! It was such a great experience teaching her and seeing all the good that has come from it! Danielle is awesome! For example, she came an hour early with Lily and the two of us to pick out a baptism outfit and she said, "If we have some spare time when this is done, before it starts can we go over Jacob 5? I don't understand everything in there and I want to understand the symbolism!" Most members just skip over things like that but not Danielle. When she was reading through 2 Nephi she had a bible with her and would read every chapter then compare it with the chapters in Isaiah that applied to them! I haven't even done that! She is so solid! Great things are ahead for her!

Her family is all non-members, she has a Dad who lives in San Francisco, and she lives with her mom and her older brother here. We had met her mom once, but very briefly before the baptism. Danielle called us last Tuesday and told us that not only was her mom ok with her getting baptized but she wanted to come to it! Also, her brother had the same reaction! But the best and coolest thing is she invited her Dad and he drove all the way from San Francisco to see her get baptized! Not one of her family members have ever had contact with the Church before, her mom even thought we were an entirely different religion, but they were all super excited for her and they all came and sat in the front row and really seemed to enjoy the service! Her brother had to go to work before we got the pictures so he is not in them, but her whole family was there!

The baptismal service was great! It was pretty simple but it was good! About 40 people showed up to see it, about 10 were missionaries but there were a lot of people there to support her! Between Me, Elder Bradley, and the Agardy family we did the entire program! It was great! Elder Bradley baptized her and the spirit was in that room, it was so strong! A lot of people said that it was one of the best baptisms they had ever gone to! One of the best parts was the look in her eyes a little later that day! We were having dinner with her family, the Agardy family, and another family. As we were talking both Elder Bradley and I noticed that her eyes had changed! They were super bright and full of light.  We could tell that she was different now. It was great to see that light of Christ in her eyes! She was confirmed yesterday at church. She asked me to confirm her and I was very nervous! I had never done anything like that before! But it went really well, the spirit was there and it was also a very great experience! It was also nice to go to a ward where I could just listen to the speakers! I love the branch, but that sacrament was nice!

Now that she is baptized we need to start getting some deaf people baptized, we have some potential investigators that we are working to get a hold of. We have an appointment with a new one tomorrow so hopefully we will have some new investigators soon!

There is nothing better in this world then the gospel and the happiness it can bring!

Till next week,

Elder Banner

I realized that I have not sent any pictures of this transfer so here is an email with some pictures!

I think most of these pictures are self explanatory but I will give you the names of the people in the group pictures!

see picture 8392

Top:  TJ Agardy, Sieta Agardy (special needs, see below)

Middle: Elder Bradley, Elder Banner, Telhri Agardy, Lily Agardy, Danielle De Alba, Danielles Mom and Dad (both non members)

Bottom: Zitry (pronounced Z3) Agardy