Elder Byron's Mission: Tyler's 8th week in Maryville

This week was another fantastic week in the work of the Lord! On Monday we drove about 30 minutes to get our tires changed, then stayed at the Knoxville mall for about 2 hours. It's a fun mall with a pretty good amount of stuff. Then we came back to Maryville and played basketball and Frisbee. We ended the night with a lesson about the Trinity with 2 Baptist ministers to be. It was a great day. Tuesday we went with an investigator out to a buffet. They are an older couple and the like taking the missionaries to a buffets because they said it's fun to watch how much we can eat. Kind of true though. Fun fact, Phil who is one of the investigators has been practicing magic for about 60 years. He has some sweet tricks! Oh I almost forgot, it snowed! That might seem normal to some, but in this area it only happens every couple of years, so I lucked out. Wednesday we had a team up with John, who drove us to our different appointments and helped us teach some lessons. It was a pretty average day. Thursday was amazing!! We started off the day with the Turkey Bowl, which was 2 hours of awesome football fun. Then we came home and got showered and cleaned up. We went to 2 different dinner appointments and a dessert appointment. I was so full by the end of the day that I could barely move! Friday we had our weekly training meeting for about 3 hours. I learned a lot so it was a successful meeting. Then we went to Taco Bell, which brings back some great memories with Zach Knudson. Ohhh, good times! Then we had some more meetings and did our weekly planning that night. Saturday, we served for most of the day. All we did for about 6 hours was cut and haul wood. There were two trees that we went through. The first had about a 1.5 foot diameter, but the second had about a 3 foot diameter. It was a huge tree and we had to chop it up small enough to fit in a wood burning stove to get someone through the winter that wouldn't have otherwise had heat. Then we had dinner with Sister Stuart who is one of my favorite people in the ward. She is basically a kid, kind of like how my dad is if any of you know him. Sunday we went to Church and I taught about Preach My Gospel, which is a book we have to help us learn about how to be better missionaries, but it also helps us to become better people. Then for the rest of the day we went home and studied. But in the spirit of the holiday season, I invite all of you to try this exercise. Make a list of 100 things your thankful for. I promise you that you will realize how many blessings you have in your life whether you notice them or not. Well that's it for this week, have an amazing first week of December!!