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!!

Tyler's Christmas tree. I don't know who would want those University of Utah ornaments on their tree:) I made sure and sent a BYU ornament today.

First snow of the season

Package we sent Tyler

End of Fall

Sister Missionaries

Tyler's 7th week in Maryville

This week was a jam packed week full of work and service! And I loved it!!! We visited a ton of less-active members of our church and invited them to come to church on Sunday and learn more about Jesus Christ and increase their faith in Him. I loved visiting with them and being able to talk about how we can increase our faith together. We also did a lot of service this week. We redid the siding on somebody's house which took up the majority of our day. I really loved being able to learn something new about how to put up siding on a house. This could definitely come in handy some day! We also sanded the walls of another member’s house so she could get ready to paint. I feel like when it says that "charity is the pure love of Christ" in the scriptures, that it is one of the truest statements. You cannot feel anything but love while serving someone else or receiving the service. Christ’s entire life was directed towards service in one way or another. He also performed the ultimate act of service with His atoning sacrifice. The least we can do for Him in return is to strive to serve our fellow man at all times and in all places. So if you are reading this I challenge you to try and do at least one act of service for another person anonymously. I promise you will feel good about it when you're done and you will feel the love of Christ. I love hearing from everyone so please don't stop writing me! And if you haven't written me yet, it's never too late to start Have a great week everyone!!
tyler.byron@myldsmail.net

Tyler's 6th week in Maryville

Tyler's 6th week in Maryville-- This is a picture that was sent to me from a friends son who recently moved to Knoxville. He ran into Tyler at stake conference. 

Hello everyone! This week was a pretty fantastic week to say the least! On Preparation day this week we did our normal shopping and emailing home. Then we went to the car wash and had the car cleaned inside and out. This was fun because we were given money to bring it through a car wash so we didn't have to do it ourselves! Then after that we went to the field to play soccer for the first time on my mission. It felt good to use a soccer ball again! After that we had our usual ultimate Frisbee game followed by dinner and a teaching appointment with the Baptist ministers. They are awesome! Tuesday we had zone conference which was basically training from 9-3. That was long, but it went by surprisingly fast! The next 2 days after that we went through our usual routine of eating food and teaching people. Friday night we ate at the King's house. Now this wasn't just some ordinary dinner appointment. Brother King is a chef by trade for the last 15 years. We had bread and muscles for an appetizer and linguine with a shrimp, mushroom and cucumber sauce, with pie to top it off. Probably one of the most legit dinners I have ever had! Out of my district of 13 in the M.T.C., 4 of them have made it to Brazil. So visas are actually coming in surprisingly fast! Elder Forsgren also just got his visa; he came to Tennessee with me. He fly's down on Monday. Saturday night was the adult session (18+) of Stake conference where we go and hear from speakers more stuff about our church and its Gospel doctrine. You can never learn too much. It was one of the best sessions of anything I have ever heard, just fantastic! Well that's it for this week! Have a great week everyone!!

Tylers 4th and 5th week in Maryville

Week 4: This week was like a roller coaster! The week started off great! We taught some amazing lessons, had some real progress with our investigators and my relationship with my companions was only getting better! Then right after we taught our best lesson ever on Wednesday, the week started to go downhill quickly. Something came up with two people where we had to drop their baptismal date, and two of our other investigators dropped us, which was a huge bummer! Then the week got way better yesterday which was my birthday! Even though nothing special actually happened on my birthday, we got fed a great roast meal and I made myself a cake, lit the candles and blew them out. It was probably the weirdest birthday I have ever had! But i loved it, thanks for all the birthday wishes! On Wednesday we had an exchange which is where one of the Elders in our companionship went with an Elder from the Zone leader’s companionship for 24 hours. Elder Christensen switched places with Elder Antileo. Elder Antileo is from Santiago Chile and speaks fluent Spanish and English, which is the closest thing to Portuguese that exists up here. So somewhat talking to him was nice because I got to practice... sort of. He is also a really interesting guy! I also think that I’m going to stay here until right after Christmas, and then I think I will fly down to Brazil to start off the New Year right.

Week 5: This week flew by faster than any other weeks on my mission so far! Last Monday on P-day we ate some rice bowls from a really good Japanese place called Osaka's. The best part was they were completely filling, tasted great, and only cost $5. I love it! Then the rest of the day we played basketball at the church, ate dinner, and taught a lesson to finish the day off. Oh and we played some sand volleyball which was the first time I had played in like a month. I was a little rusty to say the least! The only thing more depressing is I haven't played in a soccer game since August, it's killing me! But besides that my time here is amazing. I am absolutely loving Maryville Tennessee and all of the people here, redneck or not. Now that I’m really getting into missionary mode, time is going by faster than i want it to. I'm really enjoying the missionary life and i don't want it to end! Things went really well this week with the people we are talking with as well as finding new people who are curious about our church and what we believe. If you don't know a lot about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, email me or visit mormon.org to learn more. I love this church with all my heart and I want to share it with the entire world. That's why I’m on a mission, because Christ said that if we love Him than "feed my sheep". And that's exactly what I’m out here to do. I love and miss everyone. Have a great week!

Week 3 in Knoxville

Hello people of Facebook! Last week was a great week and it went by even faster than the last. I'm going to be home before i know it! I loving serving the people and I love serving the Lord. The people here are all amazing people with great stories if you're willing to listen. We had a baptism Saturday night and it was just an amazing experience to see someone change their life completely in order to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God. I love this church and the happiness it brings to peoples lives. If anyone has any questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, just email me (tyler.byron@myldsmail.net) or go to mormon.org

 Have a great week!

Week Two In Knoxville

Hey Everyone! I'm on week two of my mission in the field. So far everything is amazing!! I'm getting so caught up in the work here that time is flying by! Even though it's going quick, the days are still hard. I have noticed that when I’m working the hardest and being the most obedient that time goes by quickly and my days are generally a lot happier! I've noticed a few things that bring about miracles on my mission. Proper planning brings miracles, Faith brings miracles, Obedience brings miracles, and hard work brings miracles. I have plenty of examples to back it up too. This week we did a lot of visiting to people that lived close because we were on bikes. The city and areas where most people live is about 4-5 miles away from where we live, so we only went up there twice this past week. All in all we did around 30 miles on bike this week, which really wasn't that much at all. The only problem is that it's up hill... both ways! But I guess what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger! This weekend is the ward party Chili and Pie cook of which I’m really excited for. If there is anything amazing about the South it's their food without a doubt. So I’m really excited for that. We also should have some less active members there so hopefully the ward with fellowship them well! The people down here are so nice. Even if they aren't Mormon they still love to talk about us and about Christ which is always a bonus. And EVERYONE down here knows their Christ! I love the spirit here and I’m really excited for the holiday season when Jesus is on everyone's mind and the joy can be felt in the air. I love my mission and I love doing God's work on the earth. I hope to hear from everyone soon! Love you all! 

          Love Elder Tyler Byron!

I think this might be the mission home?

Mission Flag

Tyler's Apartment

Tyler's Apartment

Tyler said a lot of the churches out there have cemeteries in the front

A random sign they found

Tyler