Love from Uncle Layne

I just received a text from my uncle Layne saying that they got to have bananna splits with the elders.  Even though Elder Peterson is only having a Bananna

Text from Concho members

Elder Peterson and elder brown  teaching our daughter her last lesson before her baptism. They had been helping us put some concrete.

New area! Concho Arizona

Hey family.

Hello from Concho Arizona. Wow I love this place. The transfer is going great. Elder brown is my new companion. He is awesome and I have been around him before. He is fun and we are living it up here in Concho. He is from Ephraim Utah. He likes tinkering. He is a fixit guy like me and we both have worked construction before. It is good because we do tons of service all the time and we both work hard so it's good here. He also said he likes climbing. He loves anything minty and or chocolate like me lol. We live I a trailer in the middle of nowhere out of town and it is just me and him. The area is very hilly and tones of unmarked dirt roads. All the roads are dirt except for the highway and a couple others. Only the highway has a speed limit too so the TiWi box doesn't know how fast we are allowed to go so as long as we keep it under 70 we are good lol. The mountains are a ways away but this is a sweet area. The Mission President has me and elder Brown here on special assignment to try a new kind of missionary work involving almost nothing but service. Elder brown is a fix everything guy like me and we both love service. We are absolutely in the middle of nowhere out in the country. We live in a trailer 4 miles out of town. Everyone is so spread out. We have a fire pit and a weights set for me to work out. I already maxed out the bar and did it ten times. This place is an partially an outlaw town. There are the good people but then there are people who come here to hide from the law because it is so remote. There is an FLDS Colony (polygamists) and a Nudist Colony on the outskirts of town hiding away from the world. it is so weird. There are like no police. I feel like I'm in the old west. We do so much service (and our house is so far away that we stay in service cloths almost all day every day. Allot of the times all day. We teach lessons that way and people don't think twice about it. They actually accept us better in normal cloths. We have a truck too because of how rough and crazy the roads are to ranches everywhere. I am loving it.
Actually truthfully we are so remote that we don't see any other missionaries except once a week or so when we go to St. John's for district meeting. Elder brown is an awesome elder and so fun to be around. I love this place. We have wifi at the house for our e-mails so that we don't have to waste miles getting to the church because we are so far in the middle of nowhere. Loving it here in Concho. I feel like time will fly by here.

I have seen a few big buck antelope out here already. Our area is huge. We drove to dinner on Monday and it took us 45 minutes to get there on the highway. In other news I have a mailing address now for here. If it is anyone other than immediate family have them still send it to the mission office but if it is going to get here before transfers in 6 weeks send it. I just have to make sure it doesn't get sent while I am not here.

Love you all so much,

Love ,

Justin

Sent From The Mish'

Training a new comp in a semi new area (July 13 th through August 3rd)

Hey dad. This week has been great.
Mom has an idea that I am still in a Spanish area but I am not. I now cover the YSA and the 2 other wards in Eagar. Amity Ward goes clear up to Greer and to surmise ski resort.
We have an investigator in sunrise and it is like a 45 minute drive up there. My area is so huge! But we saw some elk yesterday when we went up there. Right allong the side of the road. It was pretty cool. It is so beautiful this time of the year. It is monsoon season and so it rains every afternoon. We have severe thunderstorms. The Lightning is awesome. But other than that there is not much to talk about this week. I did meet milo at the parade. I was on a float and jumped of and ran over and met him but we couldn't talk for long. I am glad things are going well for you all back home.
I don't know when hunting season starts, but talking to the people here our amity Ward mission leader (hunts with a bow too) said that it takes a while to draw elk tags but the cous deer are easy to get tags for, for archery. He likes hunting them and I have seen a couple on people's walls. I haven't seen one yet. But I want to and hopefully will.

July 21

Dear dad,
    Sorry this week has been crazy. I did get the package. Thank you so much. I went fishing with it Monday. I am sorry we couldn't e-mail you all. I feel like I'm in a war zone. There was a shooting at a cell tower in Show-Low at a cell tower that knocked all cell service and Internet out for all of round valley. It is crazy. But it is all good now. It sounds like things are going good back home. It is crazy up here. It is hard to whitewash and train a new elder at the same time. I am feeling like I don't get allot accomplished. The stress of the go go go attitude they kinda force into you on the mission makes me feel lazy when I am just dead tired. But I guess it's not so bad. I could be in the valley. Thank you so much. Sorry that I didn't e-mail you yesterday. Hope you weren't to worried.
Love,
Justin

July 27th

Hey dad. Thanks for the pictures. it sounds like you are going to have some fun. I am doing good here I got to visit Luna New Mexico it is beautiful. And about a 45 minute drive from here. And we got to watch a rodeo there. It was fun. But our miles are gone for the month. So this week should be interesting. Working on member rides only. I have been hitting the gym hard every morning. I haven't lost any more weight but I have been building allot of muscles to. I am glad you get to go camping and I hope you have fun. Love Justin.



August 3rd
Thank you so much for all the pictures. It looked like you all had a good time up in the mountains. Bowen is getting so big. Well I just found out today that I can do 2 pull-ups. Something that I have never ever done before. I am so happy. I haven't lost any weight but I have been gaining tons of muscle and loosing fat fast.

Yesterday we had a baptism in the YSA Branch. Janey Greer. She was so excited to be baptized and her family was so against it but she was really happy because in the end the all showed up to the baptism to support her anyways.  It is crazy.  I feel so good. This is the best I have felt in a long time. At sports ( how I found out I could do 2 pull-ups) I jumped up and grabbed 2x4 trusses in the pavilion where we had lunch and did 2 pull-ups. I am so happy. It feels good. 70% of my monthly food money I buy protein with lol and stuff for my smoothies. That is all I eat. Thank you all so much for your support. Love you.
Sent From The Mish'

Yep that is a belt buckle made out of 50 caliber bullets.

Elk we saw right off of the road

Guitar a member gave me to use. It was our YSA mission leaders he just got married to another YSA. It is so awkward because they still feed us In another Ward and it is weird to have two YSAs that you knew now living together and as a missionary I don't have to call them to repentance because it is all done right.

70% of my monthly food money I buy protein and stuff for my smoothies.

Transfer day July 8

Hey dad this week was great. I got transferred to a car area but still in the same apartment and me and elder stroke are both training. It's pretty cool. So I guess I am done learning Spanish for a while. Man the valley was ridiculously hot when we went down for transfers it was 110 in the shade. Ridiculous. Glad to be back in round valley.love you all.  Well first off my companion is from Utah. Barely hits me at the shoulder and weighs 110 soaking wet. So we are quite different but he is willing to work and get the job done.
I don't know if I know a Tyler bean but I asked president and he said that he is coming lol. Yes I still have my bike bu we cover the other 3 wards in round valley and they are big. And we cover the stake for ysa. Our area goes all the way up to Greer and sunrise resort.
The pictures are: Back in camp and gettin ripped. At the snowflake templedoing confirmations for the young women group, me at the rim

June 22

Hey dad this week was pretty slow but we did ok. We went fishing this
morning. But I wanted to say happy Father's Day. I am so great full
for you and all that you do for me. The weather is pretty hot right
now. It has been in the hundreds and dry but it is supposed to hit
monsoon season soon and starting Wednesday it is supposed to rain for
a week. Sorry not much to talk about this week. Love you dad.
Dear mom
I am so grateful for this area up here. I have loved it. This week has
been slow though. But I guess that's alright.

 Man cave P day time

Love you mom.

June 15th

We write to elder Peterson about fishing the big lost and sent some pictures he reaponded:

I miss that river lol well this week was great. We had
a 9 year old get baptized Saturday. She is great. Paycee Logan is so
happy and her family is too. It went great. Also I got to baptize my
companion in the temple for some of his ancestors. They were all Greek
names and were hard to pronounce lol but it was great. Well I hope all
the family is doing well. It is all great here. One more month down. It is fun to have a lot to do, The days are going faster.

He then inquired about getting  a fishing licence and planned on getting one the next Wednesday.then talked to us about the church shooting.

The church building is finally repaired.
The lady is just fine. It only went through meat. He [the shooter] had a mental
disorder and he had tried to commit suicide a while before. So he got
drunk when his family wasn't home because of depression and he just
shot at the cop to get a way out without committing suicide the wife
and 15 year old daughter are devastated but have been fellowshiped by
the ward members including the lady that was shot. There are no hard feelings and we are reaching out to them

Hey mom,
So this week was great. Yes we did have a baptism but I have not done
any myself. But this week I was able to do baptisms in the temple and
I was able to baptize my companion for family names and he did one for me. I took a name all the way through the temple. It was great. Paycee Logan was the one that got Baptized this week. I don't care if I do the baptisms but it's great to see people grow closer to the lord.
Love you mom.