July 6 and 13 Missionary Emails

June 6

Great Week!

Hey all. It was a great week here in Florida. Elder Duarte and I got a new companion so we are in a trio. He's super dope. We have so much in common. It's been really good to have another person to help motivate us. He just got reassigned from Brazil after being home for a few months.

We were able to have a few member lessons this week that went really well. I feel like I'm starting to know who everyone in the ward is now.

One of my favorite previous companions, Elder Tempest, also just got transferred next to us and it's been super fun serving around him again. Yes I know I shouldn't have favorites. He brought a pickleball set and we've been doing that for our exercise time. I never knew how fun pickleball was. (Tennis is still better though.)

We also had a District BBQ for the Fourth. We have a really good district. We're all super close.

Anyway, having Elder Sullivan here has been perfect for us. We've been really productive all week and are excited for this transfer. 

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July 13

😀

We had such a good week here. We found a new guy named Mubashir. He doesn't have a religious background at all, but he is so excited to learn. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying and has been accepting everything we teach. He was an online referral that we just got one day and reached out to and he turned out to be so solid. I really think he's going to get baptized, which would be a huge miracle during quarantine. 

Barbara has still been unresponsive. We even left her a note with an origami squirrel at her house. She didn't even respond to that. If an origami squirrel didn't work I don't think anything will. So we may have to wait until church starts again to start teaching her again. 

We spent a lot of time making videos this week for our zone Facebook page. We also had some really good member lessons. The members are starting to get to know us, which makes scheduling member lessons easier. 

So basically we had a really productive week. We've been having a good time being in a trio and have had some cool miracles. Hopefully this trend continues and this next week is even better. 

Missionary Emails June 22 and 29

June 22
Hey sorry for the late email. This week was fairly productive. Our one investigator canceled both our lessons though. But she's doing good and has been reading the Book of Mormon. We also got a new ward mission leader and had a great meeting where we planned out how we're going to help the members do missionary work and hopefully get us some new people to talk to. 

Also today we had a cool miracle. Right as I was leaving to go pick up a pork shoulder and some other food from the store, a member showed up to our house with a bunch of food, including a pork shoulder. What are the odds of that? Crazy. 

Also today a bug crawled into my shirt without me realizing while I was driving, then I felt something and squished it and got guts all over my shirt. I thought it was a wasp and I was freaking out, so I pulled over and got out. Turns out it was a grasshopper. Don't know how it got in my shirt but I was freaking out. Scariest moment of my mission. 

Anyway, that was about it for the week. We also found a super dope park next to our place so I'll be going to play ball there for exercise a lot. That'll probably be good. I'll get some vitamin D in me. We have high hopes for this week. 


June 29
TRIO LIFE

This is gonna be a short email. We have transfers tomorrow and we're getting a third companion. He was serving in Brazil I think and just got reassigned here. It will be good to have a third person with us to give us some fire. 

Today we get to go to the beach. That always puts us in a good mood for a bit. It's going to be Elder Duarte's first beach pday in 18 months. I'll send some pictures later. 

June

For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.

And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.  -- 2 Nephi 28:20-21

There is such division in our country right now. To wear a mask or not to wear a mask. Protests and riots about Black Lives Matter. The state of Utah COVID-19 numbers have skyrocketed in the past month. Businesses have slowly been opening and I think that has given people a false sense of security. That and I just think they are tired of this whole virus thing and the social distancing that comes with it.

I take heart in Elder Holland's words from our last general conference where he said, "Even as we speak, we are waging an ‘all hands on deck’ war with COVID-19, a solemn reminder that a virus 1,000 times smaller than a grain of sand can bring entire populations and global economies to their knees. When we have conquered it — and we will — may we be equally committed to freeing the world from the virus of hunger and freeing neighborhoods and nations from the virus of poverty."

In the meantime, Nate opened his mission call. Unlike Erik's that came in the mail, Nate's came through his email. It showed up on Tuesday but since he was working every night, he wanted to wait until Saturday to open it. Talk about patience!

Nate's headed to the Adelaide, Australia mission, English speaking. He enters the MTC (which has now been changed to home-MTC) on September 2 and flies out on September 23, quite possibly to a reassignment until Australia opens back up.

The kicker . . . Erik flies home on September 23 at 9:30am. What are the odds Nate leaves a little later and they'll be able to see each other briefly at the airport?

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We left a little piece of our heart in Colorado a week ago.

Jason was offered a job to work in Denver doing maintenance at the apartment complexes two of his aunts manage. So with little notice, they packed up all their belongings and we moved them to Lakewood, Colorado. 

Ash got some driving time on the way home.

Did I mention she finally passed her driving test to get her permit!

But before they left we got a 5-generation photo or two with Grandma and Grandpa Ellis. 

We made a trip to Ferron to see the Greats down there.

And we visited with the Goldens who are like a 2nd set of grandparents.


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Alex celebrated turning double digits. He opened presents at Grandma's,

came home to drive-thru birthday dinner like Ash's,

went to Settlement to practice fishing with his new pole,

and came back to birthday pie and Erik and his companions singing Happy Birthday.

June was a good month. It was a sad month. But babies somehow make everything right with the world. We tried to get as much baby time as possible.

We all miss our little Ollie [and I guess KJ too, but maybe not as much ;)]

Quarantine Week 13

Hey guys. It was a productive week for me personally, not so good as far as missionary work goes though. Our one investigator had family in town all week and couldn't meet. But we did get a new mission leader and got to talk to him a little bit. This upcoming week we have a few member lessons plus a lesson scheduled with Barbara now that her family returned home. So it should be a good week. 

This week I spent tons of time in our yard. We have a house with an overgrown yard because I don't think missionaries in the past had time or cared enough to take care of it. But I borrowed a bunch of tools and went to town this week cleaning it up. I mowed, edged, pruned, weeded, and cleaned the driveway and back patio off. It's been a fun project. 

I also helped some other missionaries film and edit videos for our Facebook page. I've been really enjoying that too. 

On a more serious note though, things aren't all great. It's super tough being a missionary during this. It's hard finding motivation to do video calls and talking to people over Facebook when we're so used to doing things the old way. It's hard being stuck inside all day feeling like there's so much to be done outside talking to people. But I've been blessed with good mental health and I'm doing fine and trying to improve and adjust. But there are tons of missionaries struggling right now with different mental illnesses, either brought about by quarantine or intensified by it. There are lots that aren't fine. So please keep the missionaries in your prayers and be understanding with people that are struggling around you. 

Sorry that was a pretty big tone shift, but I was thinking about that all week because of some things happening over here and wanted to say something. I know quarantine won't last forever and I'm still hoping for things to return to normal soon. But for now we have to endure and make the most of the situation. 

Elder Leary

I took this picture from our backyard. We had a really bright sunset. 

Also we are now allowed to wear blue or white shirts with or without a tie. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the no tie though. 

June 1 and June 8 Missionary Emails

June 1
Productive Week

We actually had a lot to do this week! We finally got in contact with Barbara again, we started making a Facebook video series, we filmed a cool video for our zone Facebook page, and we had some lessons with members. 

The big thing this week was we were able to get in contact with Barbara. She was going to get baptized when I got here, but then she started ghosting us and we had no contact for over a month. This last week we decided to stop by and leave a note at her house with an origami flower on it. She texted as soon as she got it and said how it brought her to tears and that she wants to meet again. We were so excited. We had a good call with her and are going to have a lesson this week. 

My companion, Elder Duarte, is starting a video series on The Book of Mormon this week. He is letting me be the producer and he'll be the star. I'm excited. We already made the intro and outro for all the videos, now we just need to make the actual content. I'll probably be sharing them on my Facebook if you want to check them out. They'll be in Portuguese, but we'll have subtitles. 

We also saw some manatees at a state park this week. That was super cool because they were just out in the wild. We made a video about them for our zone Facebook page. It will be going up in the next few days. Basically we did a lot of video making this week which was super fun for me. 

So yeah, we made some progress this week. We have good things happening. Elder Duarte and I are having a good time together and also getting a lot done. 

June 8
I Survived Quarantine Week 12

Hey yall! We had a lesson this week with Barbara! It went super well for the first hour, and then we listened to her rant for 2 hours straight after that. But it was good! She wants to start meeting twice a week and get back on track so she can get baptized. So that's exciting. 

We also filmed a cool video this week for our zone Facebook page. I think it turned out pretty good. If you want to check it out and support our page that would be great. I'll put the link at the bottom. 

That's really all the news for this week. Nothing too crazy that I can remember. Other than the weather being wild. Sorry this was a short one, or maybe that's a good thing. 
https://www.facebook.com/DisciplesinDeland/videos/692795427938985/

Phase Yellow

We have entered the yellow phase of recovery in most of Utah. While that may be the case here, that doesn't mean that's the way it is in other places around the world. Our girls Hawaii trip was supposed to happen the end of June so I looked at Hawaii to see if our trip might still be viable. Not so. If you go to Hawaii, you are required to quarantine for 14 days in your hotel room. That doesn't sound too fun.

This is what it looks like for us. We wear masks when shopping in stores. We are to keep a six foot distance. Hair salons have opened back up. I finally got a haircut but was required to wear a mask the whole time. Dine-in seating has opened in restaurants that can do so safely. We have yet to experience that and are sticking to our curbside/drive-thru delivery options. We can gather in groups of no more than 50 although church is starting back up for us in a couple of weeks. Our ward will be attending once a month for the next three months, sacrament meeting only, and with three different times to attend to keep social distancing. Our time is 10:30.

Lots of disinfecting, hand washing, and sanitizing happening.

This week we've allowed Alex to hang out with Ian if they do so outside. Ashlyn has reunited with Allison and will be doing some tennis clinics in a few weeks. Nate will be working at those clinics and starting piano lessons back up.

Things are easing into normal, kind of.

Then I turned on the news last night to watch the weather and instead witnessed a peaceful protest in downtown Salt Lake that turned criminal. They were protesting the unlawful death of a black man in Minneapolis by a white police officer; however, when your protest turns violent then you've lost any credibility. Graffiti, burned cars, looting, items thrown at police officers. A curfew was finally ordered until Monday morning. Salt Lake City has a lot of cleanup to do. And Salt Lake is not the only city. There have been dozens of protests across the nation. Our world on a macro scale is a mess right now.

But . . . the Leary microcosm is doing just fine. I got to meet our baby last Tuesday when Kiersten woke up with a very high fever and needed to go to the ER. Grandma came to rescue little Oliver, and we had a delightful time snuggling and chatting with Grandma Ellis.

Kiersten was pretty excited to be reunited with her baby. They discovered blood clots that needed to be cleaned out.

Then on Thursday the rest of the family got to meet him. He is the most perfect thing around. We are all so in love.