This week has been a big learning curve...

Good Morning eddabody,

We did survive daylight savings and although we were pretty tired yesterday we made it through. So Elder Bracken got transferred to Pineville and he and everybody here wwew pretty sad that he had to leave. He got really close to everyone here (including me) and he made a big impact on all of their lives. He is doing well and though and he seems to like his new area.

This has probably been one of the tougher weeks of my mission. I am going to be pretty honest haha. I am exhausted and feel a little overwhelmed at everything that is going on. But at the same time I am feeling optimistic that everything is going to work out. My new companions name is Elder Allred. He has been on his mission for about 10 months and he is from Rock springs Wyoming. This is his 6th area and I am his 7th companion.  Elder Allred is also very genuine and his personality is not hidden by anything. Which is something that I really appreciate because when you are open it is easy to create a friendship. He also has a great testimony of the gospel and it shows in his devotion to this work. He is pretty laid back for the most part and he is open minded to different ideas. He will let you know what he is thinking and so we are able to work together in pushing the work forward. So I think in the end this will be a really good transfer for the both of us.

We also have a brand new District with two new trainees, Elder Jacildo and Sister Dixon. Elder Jacildo is most recently from California but originally from the Phillipines and he is just super exctied to be a missionary. It is really cool to see that. Sister Dixon is from Draper and she seems pretty calm and collected and ready to do her best. They have good trainers (Elder Beach and Sister Betts) that will really help them out in everything that they need to do. Sister Faulk is still here but she got a new companion from Temple Square that is from Thailand. Her name is Sister Tan. It is actually a lot longer than that, but I don't know how to spell it. We also got the Zone leaders in our District as well so we are pretty full. It will be fun to get to know them better as the transfer progresses. 

This week has been a big learning curve and it has gone by a little more slowly than previous ones. We are working hard to build up relationships with the members and it seems to be going well. We are taking baby steps that are really going to pay off in the end. The area and the people here need a lot of support and so we are going to work hard to give it to them. We met with the Beadles, The Longoria's, Sister Prescott, Brother Morris, Eurick and then did some service for Bro Richard. Bro. Richard is super big into hunting and he actually fed us some deer and wild hog meat afterwards. Pretty cool! 

Sorry this letter isn't quite as newsy, I definitely know that in the upcoming weeks there will be some good stories coming your way haha. I am also glad to hear that everything is going so well with everybody.  I really loved your thoughts on the Atonement Mom.That is an awesome talk from Elder Bednar and there is a  quote from that written in my White Hand Book. It says, "The enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and to serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity." That is powerful. Heavenly Father and our Savior will help us reach our potential and help us do things that we can't do on our own. We are so blessed to have a loving Father in Heaven. That actually brings me to a quote that I wanted to end with. It is from the talk Mountains to Climb by President Eyring and it says, "If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing." I know that it is true. I love you guys so much and I want to let you know how much I appreciate your prayers and your support. It helps me so much! I love you!

Prayers and thoughts always,

Love,

Elder Debun Soper