Week 84 - I'm still alive!

Don't have much time, but I'm alive! Here's a couple pics of half of my district, and then a baptism I got to do to for a kid named Zander that I taught down in Nampa! This is the last week of the transfer, so Elder Allen and I are gonna sprint to the finish!

Fun pics

Three quarters of our wacky district

Morning workout session at the church

All of our wacky district

Hill rolling after a service project

Week 82 - General (yet amazingly specific) Conference!

Hello beautiful people!

What a great week! For those of you that watched General Conference, I hope your experience was a revelatory one. For those of you who didn't, the talks are up online, and I highly suggest you go watch them and let them change your life. And for those of you who don't know what General Conference is, here's a quick explanation: throughout the history of the world, God has used prophets to direct and teach His children. Prophets are called by God and given the authority to teach and act in His name. Unlike many churches, we believe that God still calls and speaks to modern prophets. Our church is led by prophets and apostles, identical to the organization we read about in the New Testament. And General Conference is when we get to hear from them! It's a 2-day conference that is broadcast to the entire world, and as I've come to the conference prepared to receive inspiration, I've received God's direction through the words of those prophets and apostles. It is a miracle to me.

The missionary work here in Middleton is going swimmingly! The number of people we're serving is growing, and we're seeing miracles when we work hard. I would like to share one such miracle: we got a call last week asking if we could help move an older couple out of their old home and into a new one. We agreed to come and joined the other 15 or so people willing to serve. When we arrived, we discovered that we weren't just moving their stuff, we were packing it. And about 4 or 5 hours later, though we were nearing completion, my attitude probably wasn't the best. But BOOM! In walks Matt, a kid we've been trying to get in touch with and start teaching. I run out to the car, grab a copy of the Book of Mormon, and basically throw it at Matt. I got to talk to him about it and share my testimony of its truthfulness, and he accepted my invitation to read it. I testify that the miracles come after the trial of your faith.

Well folks, that's all the time I've got today. But know that I love you, and more importantly, God loves you. A ton. 

Have a great week,

Elder Doyle

Week 81 - 2 Keat, Pizza and Kravs

Hey folks!

What a week here in Middleton! My companion, Elder Allen, is a hard worker and super entertaining! And we've got some great things happening! Although there hasn't been much work here in awhile, we prayerfully decided to set some pretty lofty goals for the week, and we were blessed with some miraculous results. Here's a sample:

Rhi has had missionaries stop by since the last time I served here in 2017. And for those 14 or so months, she's always said that now was a bad time, but we could try again later. Elder Allen and I decided we would try one last time, and as we walked up to the door, I had the thought come to mind, "get ready to sing." We knocked, and she answered. "I'm sorry guys, now is just not a good time..." Before she could finish her sentence, I asked if we could sing for her. She hesitantly accepted, and we sang Nearer, My God, to Thee. She was touched with the spirit, and let us share a message after we finished singing! And then she committed to read the Book of Mormon!

Betsy and her daughter Kinley have had rough lives, so when the parents of Kinley's absent father invited them both to church, Betsy felt like it might be a good idea. So they came. And then came the next week. It's now been 4 weeks in a row, and they love it. Kinley invites all of her 3rd grade friends to church, and even tells her bullies that they should come to church too. She also tells her bullies that she's praying for them, which has apparently cut the bullying back drastically! Betsy is almost done with the Book of Mormon, and Kinley is almost finished with the Children's version.

My testimony has been strengthened this week that the Lord knows our needs. He often works through others to meet your needs, and He wants to work through you to meet theirs. As we are obedient, submit our will to His, and expect miracles, we will see the Hand of God working in our life.

Love ya, 

Elder Doyle

ps - guess I should explain the title! 2 Keat is the rapper name of one of the missionaries I live with. We had pizza about 5 times this week, which you all know is heaven for me. And Kravs is a snow cone shack thing that gives missionaries free giant snow cones and milkshakes. I'm spoiled. 

Just a little snack i had the other day!

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