Teeples, Dallin

Happy late Thanksgiving! Hope y'all had a great one and recognized all you're grateful for, because there truly is so much to be thankful for in life. Even when times are tough, there are still so many blessings. Crazy to think that exactly a year ago, the doctors cleared me to go out to the mission field. Crazy to think I've been in the field for a year now. Time has all but flown by. This past week was a bit out of the ordinary, but I quite enjoyed it. We had a p-day on Thursday for Thanksgiving, and all the missionaries in the zone got together for a potluck Thanksgiving lunch. Some of the Elders started going around having everyone say what they're grateful for. The highlight of the day was when my trainee, Elder Longson, said, "I'm grateful for my father, Elder Teeples." It definitely reminded me how grateful I am for the opportunity to train him and for the things I've learned from him as well. That night we also got to have Thanksgiving dinner w...

Don't have much time today because it's only a half P-day (sad, I know). Elder Longson and I stayed here and received another missionary while Elder Kuzmic left for a small town called Alice. But in awesome news, the four brothers we've been teaching got baptized!! Dom, Jose, Armando, and William all got baptized on Saturday and were confirmed yesterday. It was so awesome to see, and they're such awesome kids. I’ll definitely be watching their careers with great interest. Right after church, they all went over to the bishop's office, and the two older brothers, Dom and Jose, were paying tithing! Seriously, it was so awesome to see. These boys simply were, and are, so prepared for the gospel. It makes me so happy to see. In other news, the boys' 9-year-old brother, Rodrigo, came to church on Sunday too and also wants to get baptized! He just keeps coming. The brothers are going to be an awesome influence and help in teaching him and getting him prepared. Our othe...

As you may have guessed, it rained a lot this week. For days on end. I quite enjoyed it, but it definitely made finding interesting. Lots of people stayed in, which meant we got to do the classic door-knocking maneuver. Not something I've done a ton on my mission, but it worked fairly well. No matter the weather, the work moves forward, and we keep going! Found some cool people this week that I really know could use the healing love of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. Excited to be able to share it with them. Some of you may remember the four brothers who came to church last week. The good news is that they’re on date to be baptized this Saturday! The oldest three—Dom, Jose, and Armando—are super excited and are fitting into the ward so well already. The youngest brother, William, is a little more hesitant and, unfortunately, didn't make it to church on Sunday, but we'll keep working with him to help him feel more ready and keep reviewing with the other boys to he...

It's been a very back-to-the-basics week, but it's been super awesome to see the results. This week started out pretty cold (for here), and we didn't have our bikes back yet, so that was interesting. Also, my cold resistance is non-existent now, and even 50-60 degrees feels cold. It's back to warm for now, though, and we got our car back, so we're back to full power. A lot of the people we'd been teaching haven't been progressing much or are busy right now, so we're taking a break from teaching them. It's a bit tough, but I know they'll be ready eventually. With the whole back-to-formula approach, we've been able to focus more on finding new people who are ready right now for the gospel. This week we got a referral from some of the other Elders for a girl they met named Marisol. She's been looking for a church and has been going through some loss. We were able to give her a church tour, and she said she was hopeful about coming to church....