Short One

Im sorry this is gonna be a little short but I am going to try and type fast so please excuse the errors! We have dinner from the members every night....Its pretty much amazingness. I also have something to admit to everyone.....I believe the first time I have ever had a Baked potato has been on my mission....It was like the second night out....Never had one before. Everyone up here thinks im crazy because of that! I love it up here though. 

The work is progressing so well I cant wait to send everyone pictures of the first people we Baptize. Two dates that we have are March 12th and March 28th!  I cant wait! I wish everyone could see how wonderful this is. As you see people progress in the Gospel of Christ they are given so much more light in their life. That's what is so great about the Book of Mormon, It is a whole other testament of Jesus Christ! It gives you the opportunity to know him better to line your life more perfectly with his. It just brings so much happiness and joy into these families lives and into mine! 

Down our Main street here

I love the personal relationship I am nurturing and developing with my Heavenly Father! I know that my Heavenly Father is perfect and will not change and because of that I know that He continues to direct His children today through a modern day Prophet. I know that he does this because He loves us and because He wants whats best for us. I know that He will never stop loving us because He is our Perfect Father. I have done my best to live this doctrine in all my life and I have witnessed and state a testimony to you of the divinity of this great work. Nothing in my life has every brought me such joy and happiness. And with God all my questions are fulfilled and through Jesus Christ all my worries may be comforted and all my pains are softened.

Sincerely 

Elder Irvine

Month Mark

Hey Yall!
So Valentines day was my month mark....just saying. My companion and I have three baptismal dates set with two more on the way hopefully. Its pretty awesome! I might be loosing my trainer at this next transfer :( He has been in this area 6 months, including the month that we have been together. Technically I have more training left but since he has been here so long I might be given another trainer to finish the job. Im praying I don't lose Elder Cornell haha He is the best trainer ever! We are just "ballin" together.  We have so much success and we both have such strong convictions to be out here. Working out is so much fun in the morning and it feels so great and it helps wake us up to start the day. Ive loved gaining a better understanding of how even some rules may seem unnecessary, when you obey with exactness your work is blessed.

Boy our hair is short!

One of the members in our ward gave me and my companion steaks to take home....love that member....anyways I cooked them for my companion and I haha it was soo good. I cooked his medium rare as well as mine and they were just like mmmmmmmmmm.

It was divine!

People sometimes think that we are cops at night time because we have to ride our bikes with reflective vest. So if we walk in anywhere we look like cops a little bit its really funny haha.

But once they realize we are missionaries they are either really nice or they get that look on their face saying, "Don't look them in the eye.....don't make eye contact." It's so funny the assumptions people make of us haha.

I think its really funny when someone tells us we are not Christian and we just point to our name tags and discuss how we are saved through the grace of Christ and that he is risen again. They just look so confused. Anyways, I hope ya'll are looking for the blessings in your life and thanking God each day for all that he has given us.

Sincerely,
Sawdog, Elder Irvine

Another Week Gone in a Day

Sawyer making some Key Lime Pie

So I had a great week as per the usual in the mission. We had one day when we had no one open the doors and all of our appointments cancelled and it was slightly rainy. The day before it had been raining pretty hard, but me and my companion were like we have got to push! So we kept riding going to every house we could think of with no one ever answering but we were happy the whole time and we could feel the spirit with us. Even though we weren't having "success" we were successfully working all day long and felt that we had done our part at the end of the day. The next day, we had two people tell us they wanted to be baptized, that was the third this week, then on Saturday we had our fist lesson with a brand new investigator and committed him to baptism with a date set. BOOM! So much fun haha. Its hard work and never ends but as you continue moving and taking that next step even when you feel like you cant, the Lord ensures your next step will be on sure ground and your energy is just bolted back up to full and you keep going haha. Its super fun! and a blast! We had someone threaten to run us over last night on our bikes which was pretty funny. She was probably drunk or high or just had a really bad day because she sounded really distressed :/ I hope she feels better haha. Anyways my companion is still awesome! We are having a major super cleaning today. I washed like all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen sink and what not and another elder in our apartment cleaned out an area and organized everything and we still gonna vacuum and do some other stuff but its gonna be awesome! Also just so everyone knows, Make sure that if you reply to this email you hit the "reply" button not the "reply all" button haha Im not sure if it has happened yet but I just wanted to make sure:) The past couple nights me and the other three elders in our apartment, one being my companion, have sat down together and decided what characters we would be from different movies and what not! Three of the Elders would decide together who the fourth Elder was and whosever character we were deciding on couldn't help with the decision so everything listed below is from other elders I had no say in the matter! I feel that I should share with yall what characters I have gotten so far.

Marvel Hero - Gambit

Marvel Villain - Silver Surfer

DC Hero - Beast Boy

DC Villain - Joker 

Starwars - Young Obi-Won from Revenge of the Sith

Lord Of The Rings - Marry 

Harry Potter - One of the Twins 

Pokémon - Likatonge 

Pirates of The Caribbean - Will Turner

Disney Prince - Prince Charming (I was OK with this one) 

Disney Villain - Shercaun, The tiger from "The Jungle Book" (I probably misspelled his name)

Ya fun stuff! haha I hope yall liked it! Hope everyone is doing great! Expect the best! And prepare for it to happen! 

Sincerely 

- Sawdog, Elder Irvine

First Week in the Field!

My awesome companion

Hey Everyone! The first week has been amazing! Me and my companion have seen many blessings, prayers answered, and miracles. I got my bike thursday I think, from my awesome dad and we have been biking every day all day! Unless we are teaching a lesson or sharing a message of course haha. 

Headed out in the cold rain :)

Its been raining almost every day and its supposed to continue to rain for the rest of this week. Good times. One of the best parts is when we leave our apartment each morning, praying and asking for protection, guidance, rest, and physical and spiritual strength, and then seeing all of those things given to us throughout our day. We bike long distances every day and its cold rain and since its so flat here you are always peddling non stop. But we don't tire out and sometimes when we start to feel some pain you can just feel this boost of energy that gets us to our next destination. Its all about that extra step or peddle of faith. 

Our Pad

I love it out here, I have seen people's composure and emotional states change as we talk to them and ask them to do things like reading or praying and committing to being baptized.

Boise

It's wonderful out here! I love you all! Stay classy!!! 

Sincerely,

Elder Irvine