Week 5 | Aug. 15, 2016

Where to begin... I guess I'll start with our goal... We still don't have anyone with a baptismal date, but I know through faith and continual hard work we will find the individual God has prepared for baptism!  We will find them!  So, this week has been the hardest week I have ever had!  We are on bikes so ended up biking 151.9 miles over 6 days...70 of which were in the pouring rain and the rest was in the heat!  We only taught 5 lessons all week, 2 of which were yesterday... Hahah  Also Elder Hill got a flat on Wednesday and I got a flat on Saturday which I need to go fix today... Let's just say this is the hardest thing I have ever done but I wouldn't trade it for anything!  My faith is growing ten fold and I'm learning to rely fully on our Savior Jesus Christ!  I am learning that I am His representative and I'm doing His work, in His way!  I need to stop thinking about myself!  It's not about me, it doesn't matter if I'm sore or wet or tired, it doesn't matter if I want to succeed or to get baptisms.  What matters is His children who are looking for this gospel and furthering His work, in His way!

I can see how many blessing I have had this week... Like our flat tires were placed at perfect times that didn't truly hinder our work.  Our flats and cancelations led us to a few individuals who needed to hear about the gospel at that time!  It led us to meeting members and less actives that needed a smile or service!  We were able to give 10 hours of service this week!  I love this gospel so much!!!  On Thursday we taught 0 lessons but... Because of our cancellations we were riding around and got this feeling to stop by these apartments... Maybe it was the spirit or maybe it was the fact our bodies were hot and hurting, either way it led us to theses boys who were about to go shoot some hoops, we followed them and ended up surrounded by 8 big sweaty boys, one of which was this investigator who is so close to baptism but has been ignoring us, anyway I asked if we could play so Elder Hill and I played a game of street basketball!  Hahah let's just say it's a whole different sport, but it was awesome!!!  We gained respect balling it up in our white shirts and ties, that's all I needed to say!  I then asked if we could pray with them and we said a prayer with all these rough teenage boys!  It was such a blessing that God put us in that situation!  We are planning to set up a game and lesson with them later this week!

We have two quality investigators, Frank Phillps and Sarah Figale. We taught them both this week about the plan of salvation!  God has prepared these amazing individuals and they are both doing everything they can to know there is a God and how to strengthen their faith in Him and our Savior!  Keep them both in your prayers to help them come to the answer that this is the true church!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE THE MISSION, FLORIDA, AND ALL THE PEOPLE I HAVE SEEN AND TAUGHT!!!  I am so blessed and so grateful!  Heavenly Father is taking care of me!  Hope everything is going well back at home!  I encourage you all to really search for the blessings in our lives!  They are there and as we look for them we will realized how much our Father in Heaven takes care of us!  Life's trials are easier to bare as we focus on the good!  Remember our Savior is there and loves us!  He can help us through any trial, even helping an out of shape greenie bike 160 miles in the rain!!!  Church is true y'all!  Don't forget it!

Elder Tracy!

Week 3 and 4 | Aug. 8, 2016

Hello everyone!  Well, I made it here and I absolutely love everything about this place!  I'm serving in Bunnell which the northern most area of the mission!  My companion is Elder Hill, he has been out for 13 months and is from Heber City!  He is a really cool guy and I am
learning so much from him!  He is the district leader of our "sistrict".  Our district only has sisters so that's fun!  They are the reason for a lot of stress for Elder Hill but they are great missionaries and are killing it!  Wow!  I have way too much to say!  Hahah So Bunnell is this old town that's kinda run down a bit!  There is quite a bit of diversity so that's nice and I love getting to know the people!  People here are generally really kind and the ward members feed us a ton!  Like I'm going to get really fat if I stay here long!

Well, this week has actually been really slow, people cancel on us, slam doors in our faces, it's super hot and humid, we bike so much, and I LOVE EVERY SECOND!!!  Like I'm a missionary and that is about the coolest thing ever!  Thursday was one of the best days ever despite us only teaching one lesson... So we got cancellation after cancellation and door after door slammed in my our faces, we do this car share so one week we will have it and the next the sisters have it.  But anyway, we have a maximum number of miles and we were running low so we were biking everywhere in the heat.  Anyway, out of nowhere this huge storm comes in and starts drenching us as we are riding our bikes through this paradise!  I felt like I was swimming hahah!  It was the best warm rain ever!  I was just smiling ear to ear and trying not to slide off into the rivers that were forming on the sides of the roads! We decided to go tracting!  Hahah We got the strangest looks as we stood there dripping from head to toe!  Well our dinner appointment (like everything else) got canceled so we ate at this run down gas station!  We bought a sandwich and a cheap bag of chips and ate on this bench on the side of the road!  Hahah it was one of the funniest things I've ever done!

The rest of the week was pretty similar.  We didn't get rained on, but we didn't get to teach much.  Yesterday we just stopped in a parking lot and said a prayer that we would somehow find someone to teach.  We knew if we had the faith Heavenly Father would place people in our path!  After our prayer we got out of the car and began walking around.  Not even a minute later we ran into this lady and we began teaching.  We got a full lesson in before she had to go, we then taught her son, and then a neighbor, another lady that walked by, and then this less active man across the street!  It may not seem like much but it truly was a miracle!  I am learning that much of the success that happens out here is hinged upon the faith we have!  If we put our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ we can do miracles!  He will give us the strength to accomplish any and every task that is out in our way!  I love this gospel and I know I will find more people to teach!  In fact we set a goal for our ward that if they help us, we can find, teach, and baptize someone by the second week of September!  It won't be easy but I know if we have faith and pray for that specific goal it will happen!  We will find that individual God has prepared to receive this gospel!  Anyway, I love to hear from you and how you are doing! I can read emails on my iPad at anytime throughout the week.  I just can't respond until Monday!

My new address is:
10502 satellite blvd. suite E
Orlando Florida 32837




This is my apartment!  It's gorgeous!                                   

This is what most streets look like!

I made it! | Aug. 1, 2016

Well I made it here to Florida! I LOVE IT HERE!!! President Clark is an amazing man! Hope you are all doing well! I love you all!

Week 2 | July 26, 2016

Hello everyone!!!  I love hearing from you all!  This has been another amazing week!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it here!  I am really starting to lose track of time which I am pretty sure is a good sign!  It's weird though...I don't know if time is flying by or taking it's sweet time, but either way I love it and I love the spirit that is felt here!  It's amazing seeing my buddies from school here, serving our Father in Heaven by my side!  Shandon's rocking the skirt!  Jonah has been carrying his companion's load each and every day, and Parker is learning the language so quickly it blows my mind! This week has been full of ups and downs for my district!  My companion and I finished out the week with our tough investigators!  Our 'golden investigator' turned out to not be so golden and blind sided us with a lot of doubt, fear, and hostility which was tough to swallow!  It's crazy though how much I have learned to love these people no matter what they choose to accept!  I am continually learning that it's by the power of the Holy Ghost that our investigators and our selves will be converted! 

Elder Fine and I taught priesthood meeting which was all focused on the Holy Ghost!  I learned so much and it strengthened my testimony of how much of a game changer the Holy Ghost is!  Also all the Elders came prepared and fulfilled the assignments we gave them so I was impressed!  The only down side of the amazing lesson is our branch president was there so I think my chances to talk in sacrament meeting went up... haha jk kidding I kinda want to talk! I was praying that we'd get to speak last week and I think my companion thought I was crazy!

The basketball court has finally been reopened so that has been fun! I love playing!   I have had several chances to play with some smaller, inexperienced elders and I just gave them compliment after compliment and I think it really helped them open up and feel more comfortable here!  I'm telling you, when you approach everything in life with love for others amazing things happen!!!  Which brings up another coolish experience.

The other day my district got a little distracted... They started talking about 'Me Before You' and some other chick flicks!  They were all talking about how selfish the man in the movie was and so on and so forth.  Anyway I joined in and kinda took the floor I explained for a good 5 mins that although I disagreed with what the man did he did it out of love, both characters followed their hearts and did what they thought would bring the other the most joy and happiness in their lives... I then stuck on a Mormon Message about the old lady who was paralyzed and her husband took care of her and danced with her and loved her.  Almost everyone was in tears, I then testified to them all about how Jesus Christ did everything out of love and how He gave His life so we could be happy!  He loves us more than we can ever imagine!  I testified that if we love our investigators and love our companions this work will grow like wildfire!!!  It was so powerful and wow...it's an experience I don't think any of us will forget!!!  I encourage you all to feel more and love deeper!  Find someone that needs a friend and love them!  Love your family! 

Love you all SO much, your love filled missionary,

Elder Tracy

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/enduring-love 

Week 1 | July 19, 2016

Alright, a few things before I tell you about the coolest experience! My companion is Elder Fine! I love the kid and he is super similar to me! The coolest part is it's Lindsey Nielson's cousin! So it's been fun to talk about his experiences in Riverton.  Small world right? He is the jokester in our district but we get along so well!!! I LOVE MY DISTRICT!!!! They are becoming like my family and I truly have come to love them with all my heart! They are becoming "my brotheren (and sistern) in the lord." We have four elders going to Washington, four sisters going to Detroit Michigan who remind me a lot of Samantha, which has been so helpful and calming for me.  Boy do they have sass!!!  It's hilarious though!!!  And then four elders going to Orlando Florida! I have seen everyone here at the MTC which is really cool!

So yeah, I made it to the MTC and it is becoming one of my favorite places on earth because of the amazing spirit that I have felt here and the ability to learn and grow in faith in Christ so easily! I think other than the temple, this is the closest I'm going to get to living in the celestial kingdom! All day, everyday is focused on Christ and how to love and teach His gospel!  I have already had some of the coolest things happen! I have been able to give a blessing to an Elder and friend for his pain!  At about 2:00am I woke up with a bloody nose which like never happens to me, so anyway, I had to get up and go to the bathroom to take care of it.  Anyway, one of the other elders in my room saw me get up and then asked a little after I got back to give him a blessing. I had my companion anoint and then gave him a powerful blessing!  The pain subsided and he went to bed!  Miracles do happen if we are ready and worthy to act.  I talked to him about it and He said the moment I put my hands on his head he could feel the power of God!  It touched my heart to know Heavenly Father trusts me and can use me to be a tool in His hand!  The next day a sister came to me and asked for a blessing of comfort!  I started to talk and right away I started saying things I never would have. They weren't my words but it was exactly what this dear sister needed to hear!  She stood up with tears in her eyes and told me it was exactly what she needed to hear!  I'm a so grateful that Heavenly Father chose to work through me!!! Then yesterday was so cool as well!  We taught our first TRC investigators (May or may not be real investigators.) Elder Fine and I kinda struggled through our first few lessons! Which made this stressful for me because this is like the real thing.  Anyway, our first investigator was named Reed and he was TOUGH!!!  We spent 30 mins trying to explain to him about God and Jesus Christ, he was like "I understand that's what you believe...I just don't."  He asked about why the holocaust had to happen or illness, and why people are disabled people if God loved us.  It was hard but we were able to speak out of love and we FOLLOWED THE SPIRIT!!!  I was prompt to commit him to baptism and he was like NO. He said no to praying with us and kinda reject everything but we just testified to him and he said he would pray to know if it's true!  We came out of the lesson SO HAPPY because we fully trusted in Christ and taught by the spirit!  Our other investigator Dylan is golden! He knows pretty much all about our church and has such great faith in Christ!  We had an amazing lesson about the Holy Ghost and I testified with such power it was amazing and he said he wanted to be baptized he just needs to know if its the right thing to do!  It was amazing!  If we trust in our Savior I know that He will use us and teach us the things which we need to say.

Okay Last thing... sorry for the long email!  There is just so much I love and want to share!!!  Okay, so we had our Sunday devotional and we watched the Character of Christ which was given by Elder Bednar several years ago.  It was exactly what I needed to hear!!!  It taught so many things and I actually took over 10 pages of notes!!!  It talked about turning OUTWARD and serving others like Christ would even in our hardest trials!  Anyway, the video ended and Elder Bednar himself walks in!!!  The spirit was so strong!!!!  He spent the next 2 and a half hours answering our questions!  It was the coolest experience and I learned so much!  I had been hard on myself, thinking I don't know enough or I didn't teach that well or what not... Elder Bednar testified how self centered that was. He was like "do you really think people join the church because of you?  Are you kidding?  They join the Church because of the way they feel when you are there."  I thought of the quote, "Forget yourself and go to work."  I have come to understand that I am just a tool in the Lord's hands.  I just need to help people feel the holy ghost and feel of Heavenly Father and our Savior's love for them. We need to fully rely on our Savior. When we do He will give us strength and help us do His work!!!

Love you all so very much!  Thank you for everything you have done for me!!! Remember that God loves His children and wants us to be happy!

Much Love, Elder Tracy

This is my MTC mailing address:

Elder Conner Joseph Tracy
AUG01  FL-ORL
2005 N 900 E Unit  71
Provo UT 84602