Teeples, Dallin

So much to say and not much time or capacity to say it. Had a surprise mission devotional/"P-day" today, so we drove all the way to McAllen to meet with all the other missionaries. The big awesome news is that in the month of July, we baptized 150 children of God. As my mission president likes to say in his Venezuelan English, "unbelievable Elders." Now for my favorite piece of news and the reason for the email title today: our friend Alaila finally got married and was able to be baptized! It was seriously a struggle the entire way, but her desire to get married and baptized overcame it all, and she made it. Satan was trying everything to stop her, but if there's one thing I've learned, it’s that God always triumphs when we turn to Him and let Him fight our battles. To try and sum it up: We struggled to get their marriage license, then we had a tough time finding someone who could marry them in time, as our bishop and stake president were out of town for the...

First things first, I'm a missionary, so I haven't been getting political and I don't watch the news, but I have heard little tidbits here and there. Sounds wild, hence my email title for the week. Pretty great grind week. Found some really cool people, including our homie Christian, who wants to be baptized! Really cool how we met him. We felt prompted to be in an area, even though we knew that the person we were looking for probably wasn't home. We went by and knocked with no answer. As we were walking back to the car, we saw Christian outside on the phone. We talked to him (half expecting him to tell us he was busy), and he ended his call and told us he's been wanting to change and come to church and that this was a sign. I met him on Saturday and he pulled up yesterday (after donating plasma). Last but certainly not least, our friend Alaila got her marriage license (finally), and we’re running a marriage baptism this next week!! Keep them in your prayers! I'...

Howdy y'all! Short email this week unfortunately because it was a bit of a tougher week, and I have a migraine right now. The biggest thing right now is helping Alaila get married so she can get baptized next week. Lots of red tape to cut through. Inconceivable, really. But we'll make it happen, and the Lord will help us. Did some lit exchanges, helped them prep their friends and get baptized this week. Definitely a highlight. As far as everything else, we've found some really cool people and are truly guided daily. It's difficult when so many people don't act or choose another path, but I can testify they aren't lost to the Lord, and He truly leads us to those who are ready to follow Christ and to act. Longer email next week. Love y'all! Con fe y firmeza en Cristo, -Elder Teeples Last week's email: "Life throws another barrel at me" Movie: Pixels – The main character, Sam Brenner, a world-class arcade gamer, references Donkey Kong throwing bar...

If you hadn't heard, there’s been a tropical storm/hurricane named Beryl that’s been ripping its way through the Gulf of Mexico. The northern part of our mission had to be evacuated south, and the coastal areas (near where I’m at) had to stay inside last night. Pretty crazy, but a miracle is that it changed course at the last minute and we got minimal impacts. Scheduling was still crazy yesterday as all three wards that meet in our building were combined into one sacrament meeting at 9 a.m. and there was no second hour. It felt like a mini stake conference. It’s raining relatively hard right now, but the work goes on until we’re told to stop. The big news and highlight of this week was that our friend Carlo got baptized! For all of you who prayed for him a week or two ago, thank you so much. Small miracles, for sure. It seemed like he had a lot going against him, but in the end, he got baptized. I saw some crazy miracles while teaching him. He had a great desire to come to church a...

Email title today is because my SD card, which has all my photos on it, got formatted, so my pictures and music are currently in the same state that Wreck-It Ralph's medal was after Vanellope used it to buy her way into the race—nothing but code now. (That's not what the email title quote is from, by the way.) I'm working on using recovery software to get everything back, but for now, where they are, we don't know. Besides that unfortunate series of events, this week was pretty bomba. Found some neat people, had some sick exchanges, a ward party, friends that came to said ward party, got to help out the sisters in my ward with a baptism for a family they've been teaching, and had a friend come to said baptism. Had a really cool family we've been teaching that loves the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. They unfortunately didn't make it to church and were still out of town despite saying they'd be back. All in all, a real good week. Not quite a home run...