June 1, 2014: District Leader, Mission Devotional, and Monkey

Hey family! Mom Dad Ben Sam!

Sounds like things are awesome! the first few days of summer! Dang, I remember graduating last year like it was yesterday! Its crazy how time flies. I'm glad Ben had some senior friends this year so he could go to grad night and get to some grad parties, those are always super fun and the food is usually awesome! and its awesome how so many of my friends dropped by, I'm glad they still remember me and my family! Maddie told me that Mom dropped a present off at her house for graduation and she was so happy! Mom you really made her day! Thanks for that. :)

Yeah it kinda sucks that Sam isn't all for going to Flag High, I wish he would too. All the teachers he would have would know him by his big brother and it would be awesome ahaha. and of course, Ben and Sam would be going to the same school which is always good. But i guess i understand his reasoning. just do work Sam! and when you play flag high's basketball team, make sure to lose. ;)

Things here are going just fine though! and Yes! I am finally being transferred! This area is not my favorite, so I'm super happy! i'm not sure where I'll be transferring yet, i should find out later today, but I'm pretty much all packed already because transfer day is wednesday. oh, and I will be a district leader in my new area! I got called to be a district leader! If you don't what that is, just ask the elders because i'm not exactly sure how to explain it ahaha. but its awesome! I was a little bit sad that I didn't get called to train a new missionary, but then President Tye called and told me he was calling me as a district leader and then I was happy ahahah! It should be an awesome experience. obviously, I'll keep you guys informed. Elder Matina is staying here, and he was called to train a new missionary! He should have fun with that.

One more cool thing happened this week. We had a mission devotional in a neighboring city, with Elder Craig C. Christensen of the presidency of the 70 and Elder Larry Echo Hawk of the Philippines area presidency. they both spoke along with President and Sister Tye and Elder Echo Hawk's wife too. it was awesome and I learned a whole lot! Elder Christensen blew my mind at least twice with crazy gospel doctrine, it was awesome. He told us this fact about Satan, that Satan can't actually read your thoughts, that power is reserved to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They way Satan tempts you is by observing your actions, and by observing your actions, he uses deductive reasoning to find out what you are thinking about, because obviously, all actions start first with thoughts (unless you're extremely impulsive, like me). so the best way to throw Satan a curve ball is when you have bad or inappropriate thoughts, to do the opposite of those thoughts! obviously, its very difficult to do the opposite of what your mind is thinking, but if you can master it, Satan can have no power over you! That blew everyone's mind and was super cool to hear about. He is a crazy smart man and super knowledgeable in the gospel as he should be ahaha.

Anyways, that's about all that happened this week, I don't really have any stories about crazy experiences while proselyting or anything like that. Literally me and Elder Matina looked at each other just earlier and were like "what happened this week?" because it was so routine ahaha. But its okay, I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve in this area, and I will go to my new area with newfound motivation and diligence! yeah!

Oh one more fun thing. On wednesday, we had exchanges, so elder Muavesi from Fiji was my companion for the day. He's a super fun guy, I love him! anyways, we were proselyting and then we saw a group of kids playing basketball on this makeshift basketball hoop, so we were like "lets play with them" so we played basketball with 10 twelve year old kids for like 30 minutes. people started like coming out of their houses and were like videoing us and stuff ahaha it was super fun. Afterwards we were sweating like animals and just went straight to 7/11 because they have air conditioning there ahaha.

Thats about all though! i'll send some pictures now! I love you guys, and cant wait to see you all in a year and 2 months! ahaha.

Love, BMOC,

Elder Lasley :)

Me and Boots

This less active family that we visit sometimes has a pet monkey named Boots! I was always afraid to touch him because i thought he would bite, but he just play bites and is super funny! ahahah if you put your head near him he'll pull your hair or grab your nose ahaha

Boots play-biting with my finger ahaha

My District

This is Elder Zacarias, my trainer, Elder Calipes, his trainer, me and my brother Elder Ballantyne! as in Elder Zacarias trained him too. so Elder Calipes is mine and Elder Balantynes grandpa.