Teeples, Dallin

In case you're wondering why I'm emailing today and/or why I didn't send out an email on Thursday, it's not because I forgot or because I'm not following the rules. This week, we had a General Authority visit and a mission tour. Elder Pieper of the Seventy and his wife came to the mission to meet us, give trainings, speak to us, and help us continue to learn new ways to help our friends learn of the gospel of Jesus Christ and listen to the Holy Ghost. The title this week comes from the fact that I was asked to be a part of a quartet musical number at our in-person zone conference that Elder Pieper attended. It was definitely a little nerve-racking, but also very exciting, as it's something I've wanted the chance to do on the mission. The plan was to sing "Come Thou Fount," and that was the song we all practiced for the week leading up to it. When we got there to practice it together, we were told that "Come Thou Fount" had already been pe...

First things first, Happy Mother's Day yesterday to all the moms and future moms out there. Especially, Happy Mother's Day to the woman I'm blessed to call my mom. Love you, Ma. Being away is hard, but it also truly reminds me of why I'm out here and how truly important this work is. I saw evidence of it this past week, as I have throughout my whole mission. As we've found and taught the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to families, they've seen the blessings and the unity that come from being truly centered on Christ. This past week, we've started teaching the family of an inactive member who truly wants to come back and for his family to experience the joy that he knows comes with the gospel. As we taught them about modern-day prophets and apostles, his wife was very interested and excited to hear about how they speak to us to lead and guide Christ's church today. As she recognized the importance of this, the Spirit was so strong. It was such a great ex...

This week's email title is pretty easy to guess, but it was Star Wars Day on Thursday, so I had to. Besides just being Star Wars Day, on Thursday we had a mission-wide summer conference. It was super uplifting to hear from Presidente Larreal and Hermana Larreal and to catch up with the other missionaries across the mission. We had to wake up at 5 a.m., leave at 6 a.m., and drive 2½ hours south from Corpus to McAllen, but it was most definitely worth it. In case you're wondering, the grand total of times Elder Teeples has fallen/crashed his bike since being in a bike area is 3 times. I did have two times I saved it and didn't fall though. (Ground: 3, Elder Teeples: 2) Bruised and sore, but I always manage to get back up and keep going. If that's not the strength of the Lord right there, then I don't know what is. Last night we had a really cool lesson with a guy we received as a referral from some missionaries up north. They sent us his information, and we got in con...

It's been a quick but packed week. The first week in an all-bike area has made my legs a little (lot) sore, especially considering I had a bike crash this week. (Only the second one on the mission, so not bad). After I crashed, we went to a nearby gas station where I cleaned off the dirt, mud, and blood. I also got a gas station hot dog and a pepino-limón Gatorade. It definitely made me feel better and distracted me from the pain. My new companion, Elder Bodner, got bronchitis from the black mold in our apartment, and apparently, missionaries in the past have had it too. That’s why the mission department decided to move us into one of the renovated apartments, so that’s what we’ve spent most of our P-day doing. All in all, being here in Corpus is so much different than in the Rio Grande Valley. First, being that I’m in a coastal city rather than a small border town; second, there’s a much larger diversity of people here. It’s strange being this far north, but it’s been fun. We’ve a...