Week 80 - Back in Middleton!

Hello all!

Alright, I think I get worse at this emailing thing the longer I'm on my mission. So I apologize for how short this one will be, but here's a quick rundown of what's happened in the last 2 weeks: Elder Braithwaite and I got to participate in the baptism of one of our good friends Bruce, who was actually baptized as a kid, but hasn't been a member of the church for about 40 years. His experience is a miracle that I'll have to share another time. But since then, I've been transferred back to Middleton, which is where I served about 13-16 months ago! It is so good to see old friends again, and my new companion, Elder Allen, is the bomb.com! That's all for now, but I'm attaching a picture from transfer day of me, my "dad" (my trainer, Elder Bacon), and my "son" (Elder Jones, who I trained). And I'm finally getting a grandson! I haven't met him yet, but I'm sure he's going to be awesome.

Alright, love you all tons! Go be a light!

Sincerely, 

Elder Doyle 

Week 78 - Families can be together FOREVER!!!

Sup dudes! 

Holy cow. I haven't written in 2 weeks, and the past 2 weeks have been awesome! Here's the quick rundown:

First, we had a bomb (meaning really good, not explosive) service project at the Salvation Army that we found on JustServe! There were probably nearly 100 people that showed up to renovate the place, about 20 of which were missionaries. We split up into teams, and my team was in charge of painting. Before long, I and a couple of other elders struck of some singing as we painted (Battle Hymn of the Republic and other invigorating hymns). We'll apparently the acoustics in that building were pretty decent, because pretty soon we had people streaming into our room to record and meet us! It was awesome! And we were able to touch a lot of people, especially a group of veterans we were working with.

Later that day, the Shlam family got baptized! Some of you probably hear me talk about baptism a lot and wonder what the big deal is, but HOLY COW IT'S SO AWESOME! This family just started a journey that will eventually lead them back to live with God! As a family! None of this "till death do you part" stuff! Through the ordinances of the Gospel, they can literally be together forever. And one week after the Shlams, the Wilmoth family did the same thing! Two amazing families that will forever be highlights of my time here in Idaho.

And a couple other random things that made this week eventful: I got sick but then got better! I won Yahtzee at game night at the assisted living center! We had MLC (mission leadership council, my favorite meeting ever)! And we got to ride this super fun swing machine thing!

Well folks, love you all!

Sincerely, 

Elder Doyle

Week 76- JustServe!

Hello All!

Don't have much time today due to a temple trip, but it's been a great week! Our mission has started putting a larger focus on community service using JustServe, and it's been amazing. We're reaching a lot of people we couldn't reach otherwise, and it's uniting us missionaries as well! Definitely get on justserve.org and start serving! Love you all!

Sincerely, 

Elder Doyle

One of our new friends from Bingo Night at the assisted living center

Elder Braithwaite and I at the temple

Week 74 - Nampa 4eva

Happy Monday!

Holy cow! It's been awhile since I've typed up one of these, and so much has happened! To keep this from being a novel, I'll keep things concise. Nicole and Steve and their kiddos (see the post from 2 weeks ago) are so amazing. Insanely golden and I love them so much. Bill got baptized and confirmed after decades of investigating the church. He also taught me some karate, so watch out.

I found out I was getting transferred to Meridian. Elder Hillyer had to drive up to the Canadian border again to figure out visa stuff with his family. So I was a solo missionary for a couple days while I waited for Hillyer to come back. Surprise! Elder Hillyer got detained in Canada and can't come back to America.

Now I'm staying in Nampa! Don't worry, Elder Hillyer got reassigned to the Nova Scotia Halifax mission. He's alive and well. My new companion is Elder Braithwaite from Highland, UT and he's awesome. He and I have been the official Nampa Moving Company this week with a bunch of missionaries moving to different housing. Perks of having a minivan.

Alright here's an awesome spiritual thought/moment I had! We started teaching a couple girls who come from pretty rough families. And last night, we were talking about Joseph Smith with them. We told them that God appeared to a 14 year old farm boy to answer a question he had, and I was able to share my testimony of that experience. And holy cow, the Spirit was strong! They felt it, and I really felt it. If you feel like your testimony of a certain doctrine or principle is weak, of even if you feel pretty confident on that subject, then sharing your testimony on that subject will make it stronger. I've seen so many people pass up chances to share their testimony because they didn't feel like their testimony was strong enough. If there's one thing that will bring the Spirit into your life and strengthen your testimony, it's testifying. So go do it!

Love ya lots, 

Elder Doyle

They threw a "Goodbye Doyle" party that should've been a "Goodbye Hillyer" party, but we didn't know!

Last district picture of the transfer!

Week 72 - Devine Design

What a week! And I mean that in the best way possible! It's been a week of hard work and miracles, and I'm ready for another one this week!

We went on exchanges on Tuesday, so Elder Hillyer and I were each with another missionary. My temporary companion and I were on foot, so we made it a goal to boldly talk to every single person we saw (a pretty easy feat in rural Idaho) and find a new person to teach. We talked to a good handful of people, and even though none of them were interested, we had a pleasant experience with each of them. Hopefully those conversations will soften them to the church in the future. But we were a little bit disappointed to have not found anyone new to teach. After all, we had prayed about it, and felt confident that God wanted us to find that person as well! A little bit put out, we walked back towards the church to meet up with our regular companions. But 2 houses down from the church, there sits Leo. We considered just ignoring him since we were already running late, but decided we could boldly talk to one more. And BOOM! Leo was prepared and interested! We had a great discussion, he accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he wanted us to come back! The miracle came AFTER the trial of our faith!

While I was experiencing this miracle, Elder Hillyer and his temporary companion met a lady named Nicole and her 4 kids on the street, and they were suuuuuper ready to receive the Gospel. Her husband wasn't home, but they set up a time to come back. Elder Hillyer told me about Nicole and her kids that night, and I was excited! The next day, we exchanged with another set of Elders, and the miracles continued! At dinner that night, my new temporary companion and I met a guy named Steve. He's the mechanic for the family we were eating with, so they invited him over for dinner. The conversation went as follows:

Steve: "It's actually kind of funny that I'm eating with missionaries tonight. My wife and kids just met some missionaries on the street yesterday..."

Me (putting pieces together in my brain): "Your wife's name wouldn't happen to be Nicole, would it??"

Steve (probably mildly creeped out): "uhhhhh yeah that actually is her name."

Long story short, Steve and Nicole saw the miracles in this situation as much as we did. We had a a great lesson with them on Friday, and they want to be baptized with their two oldest kids in about a month! And since we introduced them to everyone at stake conference yesterday, they now know the bishop, the entire stake presidency, and a member of the Seventy! Life is good.

A quick thought from Stake Conference: "when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (D&C 130:21). So if you want more blessings, figure out which commandments you need to start keeping or improving on to qualify for those blessings. And if you feel like you've got lots of commandments and rules and restrictions placed on you, it probably means that God is trying to find more reasons to bless you.

Love ya, 

Elder Doyle

Week 70 - The Lone Ranger

Howdy Folks!

I find myself today in the unique position of not having a companion! My normal companion, Elder Hillyer, had to fly up to Canada for a bit to renew his visa, which means I get to float around with various companionships. And the most exciting part: President Sorensen is taking me to play racquetball! Apparently he's a legend, so I'm hoping to just score one point. But I'm so excited! I'll update you all on how badly he crushed me next week.

It's been an amazing week! Started things off on Tuesday with a mission-wide conference to discuss the upcoming boundary and name changes for our mission. It was amazing to see so many people that I love so much! And we ended the week off with the amazing baptisms and confirmations of Donna and Kat! It was such a special experience.

Sorry I don't have a ton of details this week! Gotta go warm up for the big racquetball showdown! But I love you all and hope you have a stellar week!

Sincerely, 

Elder Doyle

 

 President starts the conference off with "does anyone want to do a musical number?" so we make something up on the spot!

The Wymers' Baptism!

The old Weiser District united at the mission conference!

 

Week 69 - Welcome to the Boise Idaho Mission!

Hey Dudes, 

Wow, what a week! As I'm sure some of you have already heard, we got some big news regarding the future of our mission. As of July 1st, 2019, the Idaho Nampa Mission (the mission I serve in) will no longer exist! It's kind of complicated, but to summarize things, it really won't change much for the last month or two of my mission. Our mission will be gaining about 50 missionaries and a bit more geographical area, and changing our name to the Boise mission. And even though I've spent my whole mission being told that the Boise mission is the dark side, I'm super excited! 

Some other super exciting things are happening! On the 29th, I got to go see Aaron, one of the first kids I taught on my mission, get baptized! This weekend, Donna and Kat will be baptized! And another family who has been taught by missionaries for years finally accepted the invitation to be baptized in March! So many miracles.

I feel like the list of topics and books I want to study increases almost daily, but I've made it a goal to follow along with the new Come, Follow Me program that the Church has come out with. I've really loved it, and we saw an amazing miracle last night as we shared a short message from it with a group of teens. These teens came from a variety of religious backgrounds including a few members of our church and even a few that didn't believe in God at all. We talked about where we can find truth in such a confusing world. We talked about what to do when we have questions. We talked about God's love for us. And I can't explain exactly how it happened, but by the end of this discussion, everyone in that room knew that God was real, that He loved them, and that they can turn to Him whenever they need help. It was so awesome. Go look up the Come, Follow Me program if you haven't already. It will bless your life.

Alright, love you all tons! Talk to you next week!

Sincerely, 

Elder Doyle

Minivan squad

 Me and my Eskimo companion

Aaron's baptism!!