Bruh, this week though... (Apr 25, 2016)

Hello hello! It's so good to hear how your week went! You could say this was quite the amazing week for me! So much happened and it was all really great and positive. I guess first is a report on Elder Bendar. That was such an insane and truly humbling experience, to be in the presence of an Apostle of the Lord. We were able to get there a little bit early and get seats on the second row, so we were literally five feet away from him for 3 hours. He asked all the missionaries to read four of his talks before we arrived on Saturday in preparation for what we did. Our work with him was basically a big discussion about his talks and what we learned and then questions we had for him. There are so many things that we discussed that I wish I could include in this email, but unfortunately can't do them justice with a simple email. I think one of the things that struck me the most was how "human" he was. He was cracking jokes and was just another person. Now obviously he's not just some ordinary guy, but it was great to get that personal experience with him. I know everything we felt and learned from him will be applied to my missionary work and experience. I can also testify that he's truly a man called of God to fulfill the work of the Lord on the earth today.

We also had zone conference on on Thursday and a lot of it was geared towards how we can better ourselves as teachers. One of the biggest things that was brought to my remembrance was how us as missionaries need to teach the best we can but that ultimately it's the Holy Ghost that teaches and testifies. We need to get out of the way sometimes of the Holy Ghost and just let him do his job. It's when we, as missionaries, start to think we're so good and great and get in the way of the Holy Ghost. It was a great conference as usual!

Elder Latharo's Haircut

Other tidbits, highlights, info from this week includes the following. I cut my spainard's (Elder Latharo) hair this morning. Mom you would be so proud. Probably my first and last haircut I will ever give. I will say I'm gonna stick to the arts..... We had a bunch of less actives, who we've been working with, come to church. We've been doing lots of less active work because our investigators keep falling through. We're probably gonna end up dropping pretty much all our investigators and start over! So that should be fun this week. Elder Beeston and I have a couple of baptismal interviews this week that we're going to give to the investigators of the English elders. There's a cool story behind one of those that I'll tell you next week or on Skype.

Moroni 4:3

3 O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.

I won't write too much, but I just want to mention something about our preparations for partaking of the sacrament. This was something mentioned in the conference with Elder Bednar. It was said that if we do not prepare ourselves spiritually before partaking of these emblems, it is useless. The importance and significance of this preparation is crucial for the power of the sacrament and ultimately the atonement to take effect. It's such a great opportunity to partake each week of such a sacred ordinance.

Ok I've rambled too much. I'm off! Slay this week and we shall converse again next!

Les quiero.

Elder Joyner

BEDNAR WEEK yeet (Apr 18, 2016)

Hello All! Another week in the books! This is usually my favorite/most stressful time of the year, so I understand why all the hustle and bustle. I hope you had such a fantastic birthday, Father, even amidst

your work and Bishop responsibilities. I also very much like your little selfie you took of you and your crew at the aquarium. Què lindo! Cole bby, I'm sari you're allergic to Georgia haha. Do you have

to get inhalers or medicines or anything? Mother, when are you taking Dayne up? That will be a fun little Canada trip! Whoop Whoop! Hermana, espero que sus translados vaya bien y tú no necesitas crujir tus dientes :)

We have an exciting week coming up! Tomorrow, Elder Beeston and I are going on exchanges with some Elders from the district. Thursday, we have Zone Conference with the Napa zone in Napa, so that'll be fun to go back up there. Finally, on Saturday, the one and only ELDER BEDNAR is coming! The whole mission is meeting in Santa Rosa and we will have the opportunity to hear him for like 3 hours! I'm so very excited to be able to meet him and hear him speak. Ahhhhh he's one of my favorites yas! Next week we will have Zone meeting on Tuesday and the week after that we have the temple trip and then Mother's Day. Holy cow this transfer already flying by.

Not too much happened this past week. I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Lazaro (My Spaniard:), which was such a blast. The weirdest things always happen on exchanges. We came in contact with this one guy who started off really cool, but then turned out kind of crazy. We must've listened to him talk for a solid 45 minutes straight. Oh my, he's quite the story!

OH last night the power was out for a good little while. It was interesting because our only sources of light were these two candles. There is a fireplace in this apartment, but it was already a bazillion

degrees and didn't want to go through the effort. Last night, we also had a Branch Noche de Hogar, which was a blast. The Branch here is different that the others I've been in, but great nonetheless! The

members are awesome and love taking care of the missionaries.

(Just thinking ahead, Elise let me know when you think you'll be available for Skype on Mother's Day and I will try and do around the same time.)

I think that's it for this week! I'm not sure what happened to the ponderizing scriptures, but I was really moved this week by Alma 38-42. I'd love to hear any thoughts/comments/questions/concerns/insights on it! I love you all tan mucho! Have such a great week!

Con Amor

Elder Joyner

Crashing at the end of the day!

Birthday in Vallejo! (Apr 11, 2016)

Famila. Wow what a great week it has been! It sounds like Mom, Dad, and Cole had a BLAST at Myrtle Beach! Ugh I'm super jealous! But DAS ok. Dayne, I could see you as Mr. Banks :) What songs does he sing? You'll have to forward me the cast list asap. Elise! Usted es una misionera ejemplar y miro para arriba a usted todos los días. Te amo mucho Hermana!

Zebra Cake

Zone Birthday Party

What love I felt from all of you this last week, for my birthday! Thank you for all the birthday wishes and love! I may not be able to respond to every email or message I received, but thank you so much!

Wednesday, was just another normal day! The Zone did have a surprise for me though. Elder Beeston and I were told that dinner would be early and at the church, so we showed up and the zone was there with balloons and a cake and all. It was really fun! Then at night we had Zebra Cake. It was kind of a struggle cake because all the cookies were broken but I tried to piece it together. All in all it was fun!

Happiest of Birthdays to dad this week! Much love! Enjoy your 28th birthday ;)

Presents

So this week has been great! Elder Beeston is a really good guy who loves to work! It's been a blast! He's from Syracuse, Utah and actually his Brother served in HERMOSILLO too. He got back about two years ago too. Dayne I wonder if you know him?!?! We've been curious hmm. We live with the ZL's again. They are Elder Atkinson (I lived with and served around him my first transfer in napa) and Elder Lazaro. Elder Lazaro is from Madrid, Spain. He's been helping me with my Spanish and I've started to kind of pick up his lisp haha. It's all good fun!

Elder Joyner & Elder Beeston

We had a couple of cool experiences this week. The first being this. We were visiting some less active members on Wednesday, just getting to know them and such, when we felt inspired to ask their friend who was working outside to come in and visit with us. She agreed and came in. We got talking and she told us that she has been having trouble with her spouse and that she wanted to find Jesus and something that would benefit her life. She didn't have too much time, so we said a prayer with her and then set up an appointment for the next day! So we stopped by the next day and taught her the restoration. The lesson seemed to get off topic very easily, because she has a lot of questions, but once we were able to get to the first vision, the spirit focused in the lesson. We finally talked about that because we know the restoration happened, we know we can be forgiven of our sins and be baptized by the true authority of God. She immediately said, "oh ya I want to be baptized," haha without us even asking her. It was kinda cool! We tried to set a specific date but she wanted to think about a day first. We invited her to pray about Joseph smith, that night, also and she immediately was like, "well could I do it right now?" We said most definitely and she did and received an answer that he was. It was super cool and we will be meeting with her again this week! This was a really amazing experience that strengthen my testimony of the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives.

Another cool experience was yesterday. We were at the church putting in our weekly numbers and this lady knocks on the door and says she came to the chapel to find out when church services are. She is from the Ukraine and is here on an exchange program and is looking for somewhere to go while she is here. We were actually able to share the video "Because of Him" video in UKRAINIAN! We were them able to discuss it in the little broken English that she had. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time and God prepared this lady to come and talk to us! Our Heavenly Father is amazing and preparing those who are ready!

I just wanted to share a quick talk I re-found this past week. It's by Jeffery R. Holland and really emphasizes why the Book of Mormon is important. I absolutely love it!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng

Hope this is a magical week for all! Enjoy it! You only get one chance to do this week, do it right!

Con Amor

Elder Joyner

LDSconf/Transfers (Apr 4, 2016)

Hola Mi familia!! It's so good this week to hear from you all again. This has been a great last week of the transfer! I'm super jealous of mom, dad, and Cole at Myrtle Beach! Ahhhh lucky lucky. And Dayne getting to go to conference. AHHH wow what fun! And thank ya mom and dad and Cole for the birthday package too. ¿Què fun, amiright? So we found out about transfers on Saturday night and I am being transferred to VALLEJO. It's only 30 minutes south of Napa though, so not too big of a move. I'll still be in the same Stake and we will travel up to Napa for zone conferences and such. My new companion is Elder Beeston. I've met him before and he's like the nicest guy ever! I've heard such good things about him and how he wants to be obedient and work hard. I'm super excited to have a companion that wants to follow the rules exactly and work hard. It should be a great transfer! Also Elder Scow and Elder King (my past two comps) were in that area so I know the address already. It's:

155 Kathy Ellen Dr

Vallejo, CA 94591

On Tuesday, we had a lesson with Samuel and his daughters and sat them down and established our purpose with them. We told them that we loved our visits but that if they didn't start keeping commitments, then we would have to stop our visits. We asked them what they had learned from us visiting them and to our surprise it was quite a bit. They were able to tell us the restoration basically. It was super cool, because we felt like we had done something right and that they actually learned something. I'm sad to leave them but if they get baptized next transfer I'll be able to come up for it. We also had a lesson with our other progressing investigator, Mayra. She has been kind of putting off this lesson with us for a couple weeks but it was good to finally meet with her. We were able to get Presidente Rico out to the lesson with us. We taught her the restoration and she was very open. She has expressed to us how she is looking for a church and faith right now. Haha she's even expressed to us that she wants to be a missionary some day too. That's super coolio! Our other lessons were just street lessons or random contacts so not too much to report back on that.

Service wise, we did food bank, Salvation Army, and we built a garden for Sis Hamilton's grandfather. This week we also made dinner for the Hamiltons. We had been thinking of ways we could say thank you to them for this transfer (because they really took care of us this transfer). We got Presidente Rico in on it and he took the family out on a bike ride, while we went in and finished up making dinner and cleaned their house. It was a fun little surprise that I think they really enjoyed! Plus I made some kickin BBQ sandwiches.

So uhhh General Conference. What. That was so amazing. Oh My Heck. I don't know if it's just because I was watching it as a missionary or what, but I got so much out of it and received answers to all the questions I had. I especially loved how amazing priesthood session was. President Uchtdorf was super funny with the "perfect woman" and "chewbacca" quote hahaha! President Monson is getting pretty old though and it was sad to see him struggle again this conference. I feel as though families and marriages and the role of parents was really focused on. Also, the importance of keeping the commandments, repentance, and God loves each one of us individually were big ones too. I'd love to hear any thoughts or comments on the great insight we received!

I also read Enos like dad challenged me to do and thoroughly enjoyed the revelation I received from that. I don't have anything specific I wanna share from that, other than when we truly have that hunger to be repentant, God will bless us and will forgive our sins. I'm grateful to have a savior that paid for sins so that we can be clean.

I'm excited to start this new transfer with Elder Beeston. Wednesday will be a fun birthday in a new area! Whoop whoop. Just another year I guess. Love y'all! Have the most fantastic week, and for those on spring break, ENJOY IT FOR ME PLS. ok thx. Mucho amor a todos! Hasta la próxima semana!

Con Amor

Elder Alex Joyner

Gravesite of Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs

CONFERENCE CONFERENCE (Mar 28, 2016)

HEY HEY HEY I hope everyone had the most fantastic of Easters! I'm super sorry, Cole, that you had to do the egg hunt inside. That's no fun! It's was surely different this year but still super fantastic.

Thanks mom and pop and Cole for the Easter package, btw. My companion has been going crazy with the little wind up bunny that bounces. I'll be in personal study and hear this clicking noise and I turn and its him playing with the toy bunny hahaha. He and I are so very appreciative of everything, so thank you! We had an exciting/busy week. So every year the Wagners (in laws of Presidente Hamilton) have a huge Easter egg hunt at their giant house here. They've been doing it for 25 years almost! Their house is like this mountain on the side of a hill here in Napa and its amazing! Then after that there was a baptism for the sisters who are in Sonoma, and then we had a blitz for the Napa second Ward missionaries. We ate at a Thai place on Saturday night, with a member, and then later that night the Hamiltons invited us over to dye eggs and help them fill eggs for their Easter egg hunt

the next morning. Easter Day, it was fast Sunday, so we had fast and testimony meeting. It was the smallest attendance I've ever seen at a sacrament meeting too. There were 5 members there and 4 investigators (none of which were ours). I've notice that has been one of the biggest struggles on the mission, getting people to church. We've tried everything we can, but for some reason they just don't come. We keep fasting for it too, but it will happen eventually so. The rest of the day was a normal Sunday, but it was great! It was such a great weekend to able to remember our savior and his sacrifice that he made for us. I'm forever and eternally grateful that he performed the atonement for us! We have great reason to rejoice and be happy. It's really incredible! That's why I'm here. Jesus Christ has changed my life and I will never go back.

Today, we were able to go golf again today at the Silverado Golf Course! It was once again super super fun! I'll forward on some pictures from that also!

The rest of the week was kind of slow. Elder Scow and I had to go the chiropractor this past week (yes dad I know the malice of the good ole chiropractors ;) for elder scow's knee. This was actually the second time we've had to go, and we're going back this Wednesday. The Bishop in Sonoma does it free for missionaries, so Elder Scow is getting treatments.

OH!!! For district meeting, Elder Scow and I did an Easter egg hunt with our district. We said the eggs were the investigators and that Elder Scow and I, were the members. The district members had to work with the members to get clues as to where the eggs were. They had to teach us a principle that applied to our life and our conversion and then we would give the "reference." It turned out really fun and such a good time!

This week also, we did loads of service! We probably did 4-6 hours of service on Wednesday and then 6ish hojas [hours] on Thursday cleaning someone's yard. We all got a little red, but it's worn off by now.

I think that's about it for me this week. We find out about transfers the end of this week and I'm hoping to stay one more in Napa! Also, CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND! I'm super excited to be able to listen to our prophets and apostles and leaders of the church! It's such an exciting time, even amidst all the turmoil and strife in the world, General Conference brings such a thrill! I love you all and love hearing about your lives! I'd also love to hear about any experiences you've had on your missions and such! (Like Mom or Dad or Dayne or Elise or grandparents or anyone) have a fantastic week and such a good General Conference! I love you! Stay safe.

Love, 

Elder Alex Joyner

#Alelyua (again bc Pascua [Easter]) (Mar 21, 2016)

Happy P-Day all! What another great week it has been! I love hearing about your days and what keeps y'all entertained and happy! It's really felt like summer/spring this past week because of the time change. We had our interviews with President this past week, which was fun! It's always a good time to see him and Sister Wright. Oh also, mom, she was able to sew up my pants so now I have pants to wear YAYA! Oh I really appreciate the grocery box from Amazon. That was a surprise haha! 

We were only able to have on lesson with Samuel and his family this week, but it was nonetheless great! We shared the new Easter video and started talking about the plan of Salvation and how their family can live together forever. They really liked that. We were going to have another lesson with them, but they weren't there when we had tried to pass by on Friday.

Throughout the week, we have many opportunities to do service. Elder Scow and I have been doing Salvation Army, where we serve lunch to the homeless, this past transfer like once or twice a week. This last Friday, we had the opportunity to serve food at a Presbyterian Church. The program is called "The Table," where different churches in the area take charge of it once every month. Anyone who doesn't have food or wants a free meal can come in and we serve them. The English Ward was in charge this past Friday and needed some help so we helped out! We worked with Darren and Kelsey Walkenhaurst (Elder Walkenhaurst) and whilst we were working, he gave us a pretty good inside scoop on the District and all the drama that went down. It was pretty entertaining!

We've had lots of fun incorporating the Easter Initiative video into our Work. We've found joy sharing about the love that our Savior has for each one of us. I've started this thing, where each day leading up to Easter, I take some time to study what Christ did on those days. We've done this before in seminary, but it's different doing it in your own. I find it a great opportunity to study about our Savior. He did (and continues to do) so much more than we ever could imagine. Just like it says in the video, I know that I have found new life in Jesus Christ. Some may wonder, what is the need for a new life? I think this is speaking in terms more of that Jesus Christ can take our life and make it into something more than we could have ever dreamed. Something amazing. Something NEW even! It's incredible to know that I will always have someone there with open arms to take me when I'm most weak. Being a representative of Him has made me realize how much more of an importance he has (or should have) in our lives.

Since I totally forgot last week about the scripture, I hope that paragraph works hahaha. I once again encourage all to watch it and ponder it's message. You can find it here at: followhim.mormon.org

I hope Easter Sunday is an enjoyable time to be with Family and loved ones to celebrate that HE IS RISEN.

I love you each dearly. Have the most spectacular week!  Till next time.

Amor,

Elder Alexander Scott Joyner

#Aleluya (Mar 14, 2016)

Found Georgia in California

WOWIEWOW We are half way through March! That's some crazy sauce if I ever saw some. I'm glad Cole and Dad had a party on his 12 year old trip! Good job keeping that Ghost tour alive! COLE send me some more details and pictures and such! Happy Birthday to Papa this week! Wishing I could be there to celebrate with ya, as always! I love you! I'm glad to hear Grandaddy is doing well after the little emergency room stint. Glad Bro Dunford was there to take care of ya! Hahahaha that was a funny story you told, Dad, about the water and pipes thing! Oh Mommmm. Dayne sounds like he is getting a little summer trunky! Cmon buddy. Stick it out jajajaja. Elise y sus gatos? ¡Eso es loco!

This week was kind of just a normalish week. I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Matthews in the Napa 1st (English Ward) area. That was fun! I have come to realize though that I wasn't made to be an English missionary. Haha some people can, but not I. I had also gotten super pumped to go and eat 'white people' food for the first time in a while. So we showed up for dinner, and guess what this lady had prepared....... TACO SOUP. Hahaha don't get me wrong it was super good, but like even when I go to the English areas, I still get Mexican food. Oh Joy!

Lesson wise, it was a slower week for us. We were able to have success with Samuel Y Yokavet! (They're the Dad and Daughter that have baptismal dates for the 26th) We had a good lesson with them Wednesday and watched the 20 min Restoration movie, which really helped clear up a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon. Samuel's other two daughters also sat in on that lesson and so now we're teaching that whole family. (The ages of the girls are Yokavet-16, Jasmine-12, and

Martha-8, and then Samuel) After the restoration lesson we had, we asked them if they had any questions about anything and Samuel asked a super random question if we believed in witchcraft. It was like out of the blue too! Then the girls started sharing these kind of creepy experiences about stuff that used to happen in their old house and whoooo it was weird. We told them we could leave a house blessing later that week if they wanted. So we did, on Friday. The girls especially said they felt an immediate overwhelming peace come over them. It was super cool! And it was the first house blessing in Spanish that I've given. We're not sure if they're gonna meet their date for baptism on the 26th, but the girls, at least, really want to be baptized! It's super coolio.

Napa Squad

OH cool tidbit, we didn't have dinner on Friday and so we made Homemade Pizzas :) It was pretty fresh. A member had given us a recipe for Dough and I whipped out my pizza making skills from my Your Pie days and we had a pretty good dinner! We were pretty proud of ourselves for that!

THE #ALELUYA (#Hallelujah) came out yesterday! It's super de duper and goes along really well with the Christmas video! But I'll talk more of that below...

Alma 37: 38-44 (I won't paste it into here because it's a slick titch long)

This scripture is really cool and straightforward. (haha like most :) I really like the part where it basically says, because their Fathers had faith to work the Liahona, it worked. Of course they had to act on their Faith (because faith without works is dead) but it was still that simple; that they had faith and it worked. I feel as though I talk to different people throughout the day, I see many who don't have faith. They don't have faith that today is going to be a good day or that God is going to bless them in their lives. It's sad to see such a simple principle and practice be put to waste. I think that's why it is one of the first things we teach as missionaries. You have to have faith in Jesus Christ and that He is your Savior and Redeemer! Which leads me into this new Easter video that came out........ DON'T SKIP OVER THIS PART OF THE EMAIL. STOP WHAT YOURE DOING AND WATCH THIS.

https://www.mormon.org/easter/hallelujah?player=bc

Since being on my mission, I can testify that I have found New Life, through Jesus Christ. I know you can too. Like us as missionaries do, we invite people to keep commitments and promise them blessings. This video does the same. It invites YOU to 'Follow Him' and the promised blessing is that you will 'find new life.' Què increíble, no? I can testify that as you do this, you will find new life through Him.

Con Amor

Elder Joyner

California Rain