Week 17 "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." 1 Corinthians 2:12

What's up family!
This week was another great week! This transfer has flown by! I can't believe its already week 6!  How was trek?  Bro Todd emailed me and said to ask about picking up babies or something haha and he told me he was blown away by dads bird identifying skills! Something about a "blue crested whifle-bird" haha.  Chandler Leavitt emailed me too and said he's going to Baltimore Spanish speaking which is awesome!  State side Spanish is where its at!  I'm excited for him and think he'll have a lot of fun.

Not to much has happened its been pretty much the same.  Its the end of the month so don't have a whole lot of money left for food but we got fed a lot by members this week which was a huge blessing!  Missions are definitely not easy but I have felt so much strength through the Lord.  He definitely guides us and its hard sometimes because I think I know everything and I think I know what's best fut when I follow the spirit and what the Lord wants it always works out exactly right.

 Like for example we met a man by accident one day last week and he told us to come back next Sunday night and so yesterday we went to his house and knocked and of course no one answered so we went and tried another door that we had talked to before and of course there was no answer and I was feeling pretty discouraged but I thought we should try one more door so we went and knocked on it and of  course there was no one there!  I had about had it and was ready to throw in the towel when the door next to us opened and it was a less active older lady named Guadalupe and she told us to come in so we had a really cool lesson about faith with her and it went really well as we were leaving we saw the guy we were trying to see next door getting out of his car so we got to talk to him and while we were standing there talking to him I looked over and saw the family across the street we had tried to see before him so we went over and talked to them and we were talking to them and they said they were really sorry because they weren't there for our earlier appointment with them on Friday and I thought it was a miracle they remembered! haha so I was really happy about that and as we were talking to them one of their little 2 year old daughters went in and grabbed this book called "Baby's First Bible"and went and sat in her little chair haha it was really cool! She knew what was up!  So the moral of the story is to not get discouraged because often God is just testing us on how much we would try and as soon as we wanna give up, if we endure just a little longer, God will bless us.

Love you guys

Para siempre Dios este con vos!

Elder Follett

We saw this truck in the middle of nowhere!

Apparently Shelbyville is the home of Kentucky's 1st Woman Governor!

Week 16 "endeavoring to teach them the everlasting gospel and call them unto repentance;" D&C 138:25

Hey Everybody!
This week was another week haha they are all starting to blend together!  So I guess something I could tell you all about is Centro Latino!  I can't remember if I've told you about it yet!  But every Wednesday we go to this little place called Centro Latino that is run by the local Catholic Church and they get a lot of food donation from companies and stuff a bunch of stuff that the stores can't sell because its almost or already expired but most of its still good and we put it into little bags and hand it out to people who need it but its a lot of fun!  We usually get to take some free food home with us too which is always good!

Not a whole lot is new!  We've been looking for new people to teach lately because we don't have to many investigators right now but its been pretty good.  Last Saturday we did exchanges but the exchange was with the other two guys in our apartment so it really wasn't any different then everyday life haha but Elder Vidaure contacted a guy and he said we could come visit him so we went and saw him on Friday and he was actually there which was great and he had kinda forgotten about the appointment but he let us in and we started talking and his wife came and talked with us two and we taught them the first lesson and they actually had a lot of questions and seemed pretty interested which is exciting.  I love all parts of missionary work but by far my favorite part is teaching!

So every Saturday we usually try and play soccer and invite a bunch of people and try and see if we can end up teaching some of them or get some less actives back to church and sometimes it works pretty well because almost all Hispanics love soccer and will never turn down an opportunity to play.  I'm really starting to love soccer haha. I'm not very good at all but I'm trying to tap into my inner Hispanic so I'm hoping the more futbol I play and the more spicy food I eat the better my Spanish will get!  But one of the members who likes to play with us came and brought some of his friends and one of them actually ended up coming to church the next day and it turns out he used to meet with the sister missionaries a while ago and we actually got to re-teach him lesson one in priesthood hour at church and it went pretty good!  We are going to play soccer with him again today and go to noche de hogar with him and the Hermanas are trying to set something up to meet with him this week but it was just kinda cool to see other ways of finding people to teach even though he didn't live in our area!
Love you guys hope you have a great week!

Para siempre Dios este con vos!

Elder Follett

Week 15- “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5)

This week was another crazy week in KY!  I don't even know where to start! So I guess I'll start with our friend Gisifredo.  So we have been struggling to meet with him a lot lately but we kept trying and Friday we brought a member named Mauricio over to go visit him and it wasn't too great.  Before we could even say anything he told us that he couldn't see us anymore and that he had to focus on his work more and he told us he didn't want us to come over anymore because we worked for the Government so we probably won't be seeing Gisi too much anymore but strangely i wasn't sad!  I felt kinda like content with it like I knew he wasn't ready and maybe somewhere else down the road he will be ready.  He said he still likes to read out of the Book of Mormon so there's still hope for him!

We've also been trying to see Yvette more but its been hard.  Every time we go over there she's not there but her mom Pearla is there every time so we decided to try and start teaching her and she's really nice and receptive but its been hard for her to read the Book of Mormon because she can't see the small words so we ordered a large print Book of Mormon for her and hopefully she'll be able to read after we get it to her!

Other than that we don't have to many investigators so we've just been contacting a ton all week!  It's kinda hard because if we want to get a good number of contacts we have to contact a good majority of people who speak English so if they are interested we don't get to teach them we have to refer them to the English Elders but it's still important to talk to them to give them the opportunity to hear the gospel.  Just the other day we were walking back from an appointment that fell through and we saw this lady a couple houses ahead of us get out of her car and start walking in her house and I thought I need to talk to her but I ignored the thought because she didn't look interested or happy really and I didn't want to bug her so we walked by and I stopped at the last second and said hi to her and started talking to her and we shared a prayer and she was actually really nice.  She said she just got back from a 12 hour shift at a hospital and she was really tired and that she wasn't super interested and I don't know if anything will ever come of it or if she needed to pray with us but I was just happy that I recognized that prompting and I followed it.

I love you guys!
Para siempre dios este con vos!
Elder Follett

Week 14 "the Spirit Speaketh the Truth"

Hey Everybody!
This Week went by so fast!  I can't hardly remember what happened!  It was kinda a weird week!  So we met with Gisifredo again on Monday night and Tuesday night and it was interesting.  He has really been struggling lately and he told us that he needed time to figure everything out in his head and we told him that's exactly what we are trying to help him do BUT that is something really hard for him especially when he drinks and its been hard.  We wanted to try and keep daily contact with him so we have gone over there every night but he hasn't answered since Tuesday so that's been kinda hard.  We had to drop his baptismal date as well so hopefully we'll be able to start meeting with him again more regularly.

So this Thursday we had a zone conference and we finally got to meet President Brough, the new mission president!  He was a really cool guy and him and his wife were hilarious!  I'm really excited to get to know them throughout the next two years!

THE FOURTH! was crazy haha it was a total non-stop day! So the bishop had a big breakfast at his house in the morning so we went over to his place at 8 to help set up and this is Kentucky so he lived super far on one end of the county and then when we were leaving a family named the Jeffery's asked us if we wanted some milk because they had a coupon or something for a bunch of free milk so we drove back into town and got some free milk and then they invited us to go over to their house that night for dinner and some fireworks and se we went from the grocery store to another members house who lived on the other side of the county about 30 minutes away and did a bunch of yard work on his property and I think I got poison ivy again haha but we'll see!  After that we went over to another members house named the Caballero's because the Spanish group was having a little picnic party and that was a lot of fun but we had to leave early because we had to go over to the Jeffery's for dinner and fireworks! and that was really fun!  They have 4 really little kids who are crazy and hilarious haha we had a lot of fun.  It was different not being with my family, and everything but it was so busy and fun it was hard to be homesick!  Me and Vidaures FABULOUS baking skills! AMERICA!

This week in my Book of Mormon study I was reading in Jacob and I read a couple verses that I really liked.  One in particular was Jacob 4:13, "Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not.  Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore; these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls.  But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old."  I just loved how it says we as missionaries should prophesy to the understanding of men. So it's not so important to be really elegant of speaking or very knowledgeable of all things in the scriptures bu the most important thing is to have the spirit with you and to teach simply to the understanding of men.  This is something that has really helped me especially being new to the language and feeling insufficient.

Hope you all had a great week!  Love you guys!
Para siempre Dios este con vos!
Elder Follett

A member named Olga made us some really good tacos!  They were actually a lot like dads!

Week 13 "The Worth of Souls is great in the sight of God."

Hey Everybody!
This week has been another great week.  It was honestly a pretty normal week, every day was just like it always is haha, missions are kinda weird, it's like your not really alive its almost like a dream!  Everything is so tiring but time goes by so fast!  So we have been trying to meet with Yvette more but she got a job at a restaurant called the Logan here in Shelbyville.  So she's been a little harder to get a hold of but we still have pretty regular contact with her and we set an appointment with her for Tuesday so hopefully we'll get to teach her then.  So I haven't really been talking about Gisifredo very much because we kinda lost contact with him and we couldn't ever get a hold of him.  So we were thinking that we would have to drop him and move on but we tried his door one day and he answered and was super happy to see us and let us in and funny story, a few weeks ago when we were leaving the clinic here in Shelbyville we actually saw Gisi walking in!  We talked for a little and didn't think anything of it but later when we were talking to him again he said he had some surgery and he wasn't able to work SO he didn't have any money to buy beer which seems kinda like a weird thing to consider a blessing but we were actually able to teach him and he was able to understand so much more and we taught him about prayer and we've probably taught him how to pray a half a dozen times and every time he would pray he would say the Lord's prayer and we never could get him to pray but this week when he hadn't been drinking he said a prayer and it was perfect!  And we talked to him more about the word of wisdom and he was SO happy after and we committed him to be baptized on the 26th of July and he said he would try.  You have to be sober for 3 weeks in a row also so if we can get him to do that we will be able to baptize him but he just kept telling us how happy he was and how excited he was and it made everything so worth it....  Being here and working so hard it was so satisfying and rewarding to be able to help someone and make them feel happier.  Its so weird to think that I could come to love this random humble quiet man from Mexico who has literally nothing but I can almost understand how much God must love him and love all of us.  Before my mission if I met this man he would just seem like nothing to me, nothing special about him but now he just has so much worth to me!  It makes total  sense that "THE WORTH OF SOULS IS GREAT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD."
So where Gisifredo lives is a little apartment complex and that's pretty much where most of the latino people live in Shelbyville so we were down there trying to contact people and all the sudden we see Gisifredo's little dog, Whiskey!  he was just running around outside exploring and we just laughed and looked for Gisi but we didn't see him so we whistled for Whiskey and he came running to us because he remembered us and we went and knocked on Gisifredo's door and he answered and he didn't even know that Whiskey was gone so we just stood there and talked to him and he seemed like busy and stressed out and he just didn't have time to talk, he kept saying that over and over again, "No tango mucho tiempo ahora!" and I was about to say something and he said okay come in so we walked in and sat at the table in his little apartment and we talked and he told us about his daughters in Mexico and how they kept asking him for money and how he sends the majority of his check to them every week but that he barely had enough money to eat and he kept telling us that we couldn't understand and we couldn't do much but tell him that Christ knew exactly how he felt and that he could be blessed and strengthened through prayer and through being obedient to Gods commandments and afterword he told us he felt a lot better but I can tell that the adversary is definitely working harder on him now that he has been drinking less.  We left and told  him we would come back again in the next couple of days and as we were walking out I felt so worried and helpless and I didn't want to leave and I just thought how hard parenthood must be because you just want to make all their choices for them because you know that's whats best for them but they can't or don't see that and you can't do anything for them but try and help them and support them.  I really hope we can keep helping Gisi and that we do everything we can to help him!  Momma, I got that big package thank yo so much! I loved both those talks! I don't have a lot of time but I'll write back soon, thank you for everything I love you, tell everybody hi!

Love you guys all so much!
Para siempre Dios este con vos!

Week 12-"You are infinitely more precious to God than a Tree!"

Hey everybody! So this is the last week of the transfer and the past 6 weeks have flown by!  It's weird to think I've been here just as long as I was in Mexico!  So we are getting a new mission president!  His name is President Brough and i think he is from Southern Utah and I've heard he's a cool guy!  So we contacted a lady named Yvette and she is really cool! We first contacted her and we were just having a conversation in Spanish and all the sudden she started speaking English too which was weird.  We later found out that she was born in Mexico but she has lived in the states since she was 3 so she is actually more comfortable speaking English but all her family only speaks Spanish haha. When we contacted her we set up an appointment with her and she seemed really promising and we went over to her house and she wasn't there.  We were disappointed but not super surprised and we thought we would try again later.  We came back later and she wasn't there but her mom was there and she said we could try again later.  So we came back a third time and she was finally there! She lives in an apartment with her boyfriend and their son Brandon who is 2 and is like the cutest chubbiest little Hispanic kid in the world! haha and she also lives with her mom.  So we shared a brief message with them about the Book of Mormon and asked if we could come back and talk with them more and they agreed so we came back the next night and had a lesson with them and we shared the first lesson which is the restoration, all about Joseph Smith and prophets and the Book of Mormon and they were actually agreeing with us that a lot of churches just kinda make up what's good for them and they thought it would make sense that we would need authority from God.  I was kinda a Spanglish lesson haha with a little Spanish and a little English.
But after the lesson Gime, the boyfriend, just randomly asked where do we go after we die?  and where is everybody that's dead now?  and we told them that we told them that we could teach them all about the next time and they were excited so hopefully we'll be able to teach them all about the Plan of Salvation.
ALSO, we went on an exchange with the zone leaders last week who don't speak Spanish so I was left here in Shelbyville with one of the zone leaders who knew ZERO Spanish haha so it was an interesting day.  We got a referral for a lady and we went and saw her and she said she had a Book of Mormon already and she let us comeback tomorrow to have a lesson with her so I was super excited but still nervous.  So we went back and she let us in and like 30 seconds after we walked in 2 more Hispanic people walked in kinda slowly and stood behind us and i was like huh this is weird but whatever maybe they just wanna hear what's going on so I was the only Spanish speaking Elder and they only spoke Spanish so I stumbled through the first lesson and it was not very good!  My Spanish was struggling but I feel like they understood me just fine and they knew what I was saying and I recited the First Vision and told them about Joseph Smith and then all the sudden the lady, Mira asked me where it says in the Bible, and I was like umm it doesn't and then all the sudden all three of them started reading versus in the Bible to me about only through Christ can we be saved and all this stuff and I was like yeah I know that's not what I'm saying and it was really frustrating
and hard because I thought they weren't getting it because they couldn't understand my Spanish but as the lesson went on I realized they were really really Pentecostal haha and they had no interest in what I was saying they were just trying to prove me wrong and it was super frustrating! and the whole time they were talking super fast and saying a lot of stuff and I was trying to answer all their questions and teach them and the whole time my Zone leader Elder Rasmussen was whispering in my ear, "he what's going on? what are they saying? fill me in! haha it was super annoying and really hard experience!  So I just had to tell them the only thing they could do to know if what I was saying was true was to read the Book of Mormon and pray and ask God if it was true so I said that and then we left!  I don't know if they will but I hope they do.  It was hard to try and teach someone who doesn't want to listen but just wants to argue, and even harder to do it in Spanish!  But it was a good experience I guess I learned a lot from it and mostly the importance of "finding those who will receive you" like it says in preach my gospel!
Wednesday night we were going to meet an old investigator at the park to play some soccer but he never showed up so we were walking back to the car and we threw the ball in the trunk and shut it and walked over to the door of the car and Elder Viduare was like do you have the keys and I was like no haha so we locked the keys in the trunk and we called a bunch of people and the spare was in the mission office in Louisville so we called our Bishop and he said he had AAA so if he was there they would come down and open it for free but the AAA guy couldn't open it because the car was so new and didn't have manual locks they were all electronic so our Bishop ended up driving us to Louisville and we didn't get hom until Midnight which is 3 hours past missionary curfew haha.
 love you guys hope you have a great week!

Para siempre Dioseste con Vos!
Elder Follett

 pictures....this is a mail box in the middle of no where, we see driving to and from church!

 the Kentucky Sky!

 So I got this fortune the day after I got mom's letter!  

"You are infinitely more precious to God than a Tree!"

Week 11 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

Hey everybody!
This week has been so great! so the reason I'm sending you this email on Wednesday and not Monday is because we had a Zone Temple Trip and so we had to move p day back two days!  So, sorry about that haha. I was going to tell you guys last week but I forgot!  So alot has happened but first, it was Father's day on Sunday!! So happy late Father's Day Old Man!  Sacrament meeting was a lot different on Sunday when you aren't with your dad!  It really made me think a lot about everything I've learned from you and I am so grateful for you example in my life.  You are the biggest hero and I have never met anyone who is so selfless, you are always looking for ways to serve others and that has always stuck with me.  Some of the best memories I have with my Dad are waking up early many Saturday mornings and heading over to a storage unit and helping people move and that's something that I will always remember that my Dad was always trying to help others.  I really would be lucky to be half the man that my Dad is.  Your example is something that has helped me so much already in my mission.  My whole life I wanted to be like my dad and serve a mission and now whenever things get tough I think about that and all stories you told me and I think if I ever want to have sons I hope that I can be as good of an example as my dad was to me.  Love you Dad!

I got all my poison ivy stuff figured out! but unfortunately it got worse before it got better haha! But I'm finally starting to recover!  I went to the urgent care clinic here in Shelbyville and the doc gave me a prescription for some sort of steroid and I have a couple days left to take it but its started to go away!  So most of it has started to scab up and slowly start to heal.  But I was kinda being a baby about it haha!  I was not a very happy camper!

It was really irritating and it was driving me nuts and I was kinda annoyed with my whole situation and on Saturday we spent a lot of the day trying to contact people, and when we contact here in the GKLM we like to do something called the prayer approach, which usually would go something like, hi we're representatives of Jesus Christ and we are in the area sharing a message about him and we are wondering if we could share a prayer with you?  And it usually goes pretty well because most people here love Jesus and they won't say no to a prayer very often so its a great way to get to talk to them!  And if they say yes we'll usually ask if they have anything specific they need that we could include in the prayer and they'll usually just give a random Sunday school answer like oh my family or work or whatever but for some reason Saturday when I was really annoyed by my poison ivy we were finding a lot more people to talk to and almost every single person we contacted told us that they just lost a loved one or their son just had a lung transplant or their mother just died or their grandpa just had a stroke, like literally everyone we talked to said that we could pray for that and i slowly started to realize that maybe I'm not in that much pain and maybe God wants me to have a better attitude and forget myself and help others and that's what I did!  Oddly enough as soon as I did that, my poison ivy started to get better! I think a lot of the times we don't really realize how good we have it, and we can only see what is hard but if we just take a step back and try to look at things from someone else's point of view or even from how God see's things we would think that we are very fortunate.  A scripture that I love that I think really illustrates this point is Proverbs 3:5-6, 5 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

The longer I'm here on my mission the more and more I start to think that maybe this experience is for myself. Not that I'm doing everything I want or just focusing on myself but I'm really starting to understand what Christ meant when he said, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."  I love you guys all so much and can't wait to hear from you again!

Para Siempre Dios este con vos!

Love Elder Follett

Week 10-"For ye Receive No Witness Until After the Trial of Your Faith"

Whats up! How has everyone been?  It's been a pretty good week over all!  This is me in that rain storm, rain going sideways!  A lot has happened and I don't even know where to start!  We've really tried to put forth a lot more effort this week with contacting people and we decided to just contact everyone that we see rather than just Hispanic people and it has helped a little bit.  We talk to a lot of people and I've started to notice a couple trends haha. First, is that Baptist people are not very polite haha almost every time if we talk to them we'll say like "hi how are you today?"  and they'll respond "I'm Southern Baptist so you fellas can have a nice day" haha I think they like tell them not to talk to us or something because that like always happens to us.  We actually knocked on a lady's door and we asked if we could share a prayer and began to fold my arms and I noticed that this lady was holding her hands out haha so we all held hands in a circle and said a prayer on her porch and that probably won't be the last time I have a Baptist prayer with someone!

This is the phone book of Shelbyville, it is really small!  There are pretty much two neighborhoods in our area where most of the Hispanics are so we spend a lot of time there looking for people to talk to and Sunday night we were down there talking to people and what not and we saw a Hispanic looking family and so we went over to talk to them and I said, "Como esta?" to the guy and he looks at me and says "Good how are you?" all rude like haha. So that was a fun conversation!  Also I still don't have a bike but I think it might be actually be cheaper for you guys to send me my bike from home.  Apparently you can just go to a bike shop and they will do it for like 80 bucks I think.  So I don't know if that's something we want to do or not but I just thought I'd ask.  So last week we went to this old weird antique shop thing and I say this hat and I had to buy it for Grandpa cause it has a saying that he wrote me in his last letter haha, I'll send you a picture though, I'm gunna try and send it to him today.

So I've been thinking a lot lately about my mission delay and how even though it was the hardest thing I've had to do in my life that it actually has helped me so much.  Its weird to think but I'm actually really greateful for it.  As a missionary you kinda get judged a lot and people say some pretty rude stuff to you or about you and its kinda hard for me but having the experience of kinda already going through that at home it hasn't really effected me as much as it would of and I think the Lord knew that and allowed me to kinda go through that trial to better prepare me for my mission.  I also really have been blessed to understand people and the struggles that they have and how the Atonement can help them.

So Gisifredo has been pretty difficult this week.  We haven't seen him a lot and every time we do he is very drunk and it's been kinda hard for us.  We are kinda trying to find a balance between saying we can't teach him right now he's too drunk it won't do any good and still teaching him and hoping it does some good or that he remembers some small part of it.  We also tracted into a guy named Geraldo and we had a first lesson with him last Monday night and it went really well.  He is from Mexico City and is really eager to learn more.  I told him I lived in Mexico for 6 weeks and he asked us about the temple there and said he lived like 10 minutes from it so he lived really close to the CCM!  We have another lesson with him tonight so I hope he is still eager and ready to learn more!  I don't know if you remember the less active family that we live by that we visit a lot but we went over there and knocked on the door and the only one who was home was the oldest son Roberto and we talked to him and he let us come in and have a lesson with him which was really surprising so we went in and talked to him for a while and he told us he was having some problems in his life right now and that what we told him actually really helped him and that was really cool to see and be a part of.

I got Lily's letter on Saturday and it made me really happy haha! but is also made me miss her a lot!  Tell her I love her and she'll get another letter soon!  Oh and also I got some sort of poison ivy or something like that all over my body and it hurts really bad!  We were doing yard work for a member and I think I got it there but it's different than poison ivy its like just little dots but it itches like poison ivy!  Have a good week!

Para Siempre Dios este con vos!
Elder Follett

Week 9-"And Planted the Seed, and it Swelleth and Sprouteth, and Beginneth to Grow"

What's up fam! How is everything! my week was pretty normal! Not a lot happened!  I think it feels like it went by a lost faster because it was only 6 days instead of7, but last week we were going back to our apartment after we emailed and we checked the mail box and there was a big package for me and two letters from Emma and Lily!  I was so happy! My companion is getting a little jealous  because I keep getting stuff from you guys!  Did Lily get her birthday letter yet?  It was probably really late because they sent it back to me because it was too heavy so I had to put another stamp on it!  I sent one to Emma to! and I finally go my shorts! haha I was so happy to get those thank you so much mamma!   and thanks for all my bedding and stuff earlier I never said thanks!  So how is everything?  Is Everyone really excited for school to be out?  I;m having a little fomo not being with you guys for summer haha but I'm having a blast here in Shelbyville haha we've kinda figured out there isn't a lot of Latinos in our area, the other day we contacted this guy by a super Mercado  named Mario and he was nice and everything and knew about the Book of Mormon and remembered who Nephi was so that was cool but he said he lived in Virginia and he was just here for the week and then about an hour later we were tracting and we knocked on a door and guess who it was Mario! He was really funny about it though he was like wow I just can't hide from you guys can I....haha.
So most of the Hispanics live in the Hermanas part of town, which is kinda frustrating and there has been missionaries in Shelbyville for a really long time since like the 70's I think and its not a big town so everybody knows us and has talked to missionaries before so its hard to find new people who are actually interested but we keep trying! I really liked Dad's advice about planting and harvesting and even though it's frustrating sometimes I'm still really happy to be here and working and trying to talk to as many people as I can! My Spanish is still slowly improving haha...I understand most everything but I have a really hard time talking haha. My accent is terrible but I think the more I speak the better it will get so I'll keep practicing!  How's Ashley and Jake's house coming along haha is their water still muddy?  Tell Jack to email me every once in a while, I miss you guys a lot and love you ton!
We haven't had much contact with Isabelle but Gisfredo is slowly improving.  Its kinda hard because the only time we can teach him is at night after work and he usually has something to drink before we can get over there so a lot of times he doesn't remember the things we taught him but he is still progressing slowly like he said he feels the spirit when we talk to him because he is very very open and excepting. Like anything we say to him he immediately acknowledges and agrees with us so that's a real blessing for him. We do kinda have to teach him a lot about Maria, he has a hard time understanding what her role is and that she is  just the physical mother of Jesus and that we don't need to worship her or anything but he is still slowly improving.  We have to move his baptismal date though because he hasn't been to church yet but I still have hope for him!
I think you'll be glad to hear but I'm not aloud to drive since I'm new haha so you don't have to worry about that!  I have started reading Joshua and I love it! I'm trying to read it in English and Spanish. The ward members are really nice but because the Shelbyville ward building is closed and we have to drive like 40 minutes to church there hasn't been as many coming lately! 

Para Siempre Dios Este con vos!
Love Elder Follett

Week 8- "Thou Shalt Love the Lord thy God With all thy Heart, and With all thy Soul, and With all thy Mind."

What's Up!
So we didn't have P-day yesterday because it was memorial day and they wanted us to try and contact people because no one had work or school but literally Shelbyville was empty!  There's not alot to do here so I think everyone left town but it worked out okay because the library was closed so I wouldn't' have been able to email you guys anyway!
How is everything!  I miss you guys a ton and I was kinda bummed out this week missing Lily's birthday and Memorial Day and the beginning of summer and I just kinda missed all you guys alot!  But we have a bunch of talks and hymns that we listen to when we drive and we listed to a talk given by Jeffery R. Holland in October 2012 called "The First Great commandment" and it really really motivated me and made me want to work really hard!  We talk to alot of people and  alot of Hispanics are really nice and willing to talk to us but a lot of the time they just don't believe us which really frustrating to me!  We got a referral from the English elders who said they tracked into a Hispanic lady named Isabelle but they talked to her a little and they said she sounded interested so we went and saw her later that week and we asked her if she had talked with the other missionaries and she was like yeah but I don't speak English so I have no idea what they were talking about hahaha but she let us in and let us talk to her and she was really nice!  when we walked in we immediately found out she was Catholic because she had the virgin Mary and Crucifix' all over her wall and she was really nick and receptive to our message and we taught her the whole first lesson and she just nodded the whole time and didn't have any questions but at the end of the lesson we asked her to read the Book of Mormon and she was just like not its not true so I don't want to read it and it was super frustrating and took the wind out of my sails but she agreed to keep meeting with us so pray for Isabelle.
Another person you can pray for is Gisifredo!  I don't know if I've told you about him but his one of our investigators and he is from Mexico and he is here working and his family is still back in Mexico going to school and he sends them money home but he is kinda a crazy guy haha he has a pretty serious drinking and smoking problem and every time we teach him he is really receptive and grateful for us and we had one of the members in the ward come with us to teach him about the word of wisdom and our member, Lorenzo, really related to Gisifredo and really taught him why and how and what he needed to do to quit these bad habits and Gisifredo got up in the middle of our lesson and pulled his cigarettes out of his pockets and slammed them in the trash can and it honestly made me so happy to see him want to change and feel so empowered and he told us that he thought that we were just going to get mad at him for doing bad things like other churches had but that we actually wanted to help him, he was really really grateful and after the lesson he said he felt really good and it made me really happy to see.

Here are a few pictures:
At transfer meetings for the brand new missionaries they have to stand in front and wear the sorting hat and it tells you what area you are going to first.  Vidaure captured this beauty haha my face explains exactly how I felt!

There's a little store by our house called Guatamex and one day we stopped and go ourselves a horchata!

So there was a crazy crazy storm the other night and I got video of it but I can't send it on here like it was super hot all day and about 8 o'clock the sky like changed color and it was literally raining sideways and the sky was like a dark green color but the power went out and we had our flashlights but we didn't have any candles except for some birthday candles so we made a make shift little holder for them out of an orange!

Family night at a members!  They had pineapple with this chili powder stuff called chilisito and it literally changed my life haha its amazing! I already bought some!...and we had mini sombrero hats!

Our drive to church...

Anyway I love all you guys very much and its great to hear from you!
Para siempre Dios este con vos!

Elder Follett

Week 7-"For Behold the Field is White Already to Harvest"

I MADE IT! SHELBYVILLE KENTUCKY!  Im so happy to be here! Its so great! It's a dinky little town kinda in between Louisville and Lexington and its super pretty!  So this is really weird but my trainer is named Elder Vidaure and he entered the Provo MTC on June 12, 2013 and he was originally supposed to be my MTC Companion isn't that crazy!  He said his packet said Elder Follett when he got there but they changed it and he was in a trio with Elder Pyper who is related to the Pyper's in our ward!  But Elder Vidaure is a really great guy and like the perfect trainer!  He knows a lot and his Spanish is really good so I've been learning a lot!  It is super great here! Jack will like this, we have a 2014 Ford Fusion and its super nice!  We have a limit on how many miles we can drive so we usually just walk everywhere if its close enough!  There is actually pretty good amount of Hispanic people that live here and they are all really nice!  Even if they aren't interested they will listen to what we have to say and they'll let you come back and teach them but the real problem is finding people who are actually sincerely interested.  So in Shelbyville there is me and Elder V. who are Spanish speaking and there's 2 English Elders who we live with and then there are 2 hermanas who are spanish as well and we split the city with them so we only have like half of an already smallish town but there's plenty of work to do!  Its so greatto finally be here! So yeah Mondays are my P days now so thats when you will all hear from me.  I love all your emails and those pictures dad sent me are great!  I would love to go down to Mexico with Emma and Jack that would be way fun!  Tell them to start practicing their Spanish!   Love you guys so much and hope you all have a good week!

Para siempre Dios este con vos!

Kentucky, Louisville Mission

Elder Follett arrived in Louisville on Monday, His companion is Elder Vidaure and his address is

Elder Follett

159 Baker Dr #310

Shelbyville, KY 40065

 Elder Follett with President and Sister Woodbury

Map of Shelbyville, KY 

Shelbyville is located just East of Louisville between Lexington and Louisville.

 Street View of Baker Dr.  It looks alot like Texas which I know Elder Follett will love!  It will feel like home!

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.215451,-85.25105,3a,75y,127h,90t/data=!3m3!1e1!3m1!2e0!6m1!1e1

Week 5-"And Peter Answereth and Saith unto Him, Thou Art the Christ."

What's up family! This week has been another great week!  It's my last here in the CCM and I'm so excited to get to KY!  I feel like I've learned so much and it seems like it took forever but at the same time I feel like I just got here.  So I found out that I'm leaving the CCM at 3 in the morning on Monday so my last day here is Sunday which is super exciting!  I also found out that I'll be skyping  you guys from 4:30 to 5:00 my time which is 3:30-4:00 your time.  I'm super excited to see all you guys!

So in my study of the scriptures this week I;ve really liked studying the main gospels like Matthew and John and Luke and I was reading in Luke and one of my new scripture heroes has become Peter and I really like the story in Luke 22 about him denying that he knew Jesus 3 times before the roster crows but after that he became one of his most faithful servants and one of the best missionaries so I really love the story of Peter.  We also learned in a class about how there are no scriptures that talk about Jesus smiling or being happy but there are scriptures about Jesus weeping and when we have hard times to remember that Jesus was a man of sorrows and he knows everything we ever feel so that gave me a lot of comfort.  I'M SO EXCITED FOR CACHE! That seriously is the perfect mission for him and he's going to have so much fun!  That's way cool Emma is becoming a volleyball stud! I actually played this morning with a bunch of other guys!  I will for sure keep Jack in my prayers and I have no doubt he will make those teams but the problem will be trying to choose which one!  That's cool you guys went to Sam and Evans wedding and even cooler Court didn't  catch the bouquet haha.  Did you guys like the Samoan food?  That is so hilarious about Ash and Jake's house not having hot water haha. I'm sure she's just loving that.

I am so ready to preach! Maybe not in Spanish but I'll keep working on it!  I love you guys and can't wait to see you all on Sunday! 

Para siempre Dios este con vos!
Love Elder Follett

Elder Selfie.......I also get at least one of these on my camera a week haha it's Elder Eldredge from AF and Elder Ord from Orange County in the background.  Also if you look close enough you can find my gnome!

Week 4-"And Being in An Agony He Prayed More Earnestly"

May 1, 2014
What's up Family! I missed you guys so much this week!  It was super hard!  How was the wedding?!  The pictures looked gorgeous!  I seriously feel like I've been here for so long but its only been a month! I've learned so much!  How did the inside wedding turn out? Was Bridzilla okay with it? I miss watching Jack's games and just tell him stay positive and control what you can control!  Just work hard and don't give the coaches any reasons to not like him!  That's super hard when you don't feel like your getting the playing time you deserve but if you stick through with it you'll be a lot better for it!  I was reading in the scriptures the other day and I read Mosiah Chapter 4 and I thought it was a pretty good defense for picking up hitch hikers. haha
So I got called to be a Zone Leader! Which is pretty cool! It's been a huge blessing and we haven't met our new district yet because they got here yesterday but I'm super excited!  They have twin girls which is cool and their last name is Ricolini so they are some of my people haha.  I really wanna learn Italian when I get home since its pretty similar to Spanish. My Spanish is already way better then I ever thought it would be but its still terrible haha.
We had the opportunity to go to the Mexico City Temple which was amazing!  It is closed for renovation or something but we got to go through the visitors center and it was super cool! The CCM here used to be an LDS school and the B stands for somebody's name that is important but we don't really know and all the teachers just say it stand for the B word, Bautismo. haha.
So on Sunday we had a lesson about blessing the sick and afflicted and it was way cool. We talked about why we use olive oil and the symbolism that it has and we learned that Gethsemane actually means olive press and how Chirst was pressed for our sins just like the extra virgin olive oil is perfect and pressed to get the oil so I thought it was really cool.
I loved all the pictures you guys sent!  The ones of Belle are adorable!  I loved my missionary moments wall! I miss all you guys so much and I can't wait to Skype with you!  I still don't know what time were doing it but as soon as I know I will tell you!  If you guys get a chance watch the Mormon message called "Hola soy Valentin" It was really cool and made me really excited to teach people with problems but it mostly made me miss my momma a lot haha I love you very much and I'll send you some pictures here in a minute!  It's weird because its super hard to be away from you guys but I feel so happy here!  Its the best feeling ever!

Para siempre Dios este con vos!
Elder Follett

Dear Lily

Dear Lily,
What's up sucka!  Hows school going?  I drew you a picture of me in Mexico!  Is Jack being a mean guy?  If he is ever mean tell him I'm gunna come back from my mission and give him a wedgie!  How is Taybree?  I learned how to say sister in spanish! Your my hermana! Are you excited for Ashley's wedding?  do you have a dress yet?  Are you happy to get rid of her?  How's Chic-fil-a?  Did you know they don't have any in Mexico!  I'm gunna eat that as soon as I get back to Kentucky!  Love you Lily! Be good!
Love Elder Follett

Week 3-"Go Amongst Thy Brethren, and Bear with Patience Thine Afflictions, and I Will Give Unto You Success."

April 24th
What's up! This week has been another crazy week!  Its been crazy!  Last Friday we were just in the middle of language class and these bull horn sirens started going off and my teachers just yelled vamonos haha so we went out in the middle of the street and were standing there for like 30 seconds when we all just felt the ground move and we looked over and some CCM buses were like shaking!  Turns out there was like a 8.3 earthquake in Mexico City haha there wasn't any damage near us but I think farther south in the city there was some damage.  We asked the teachers and they said that its pretty common here but it was still super exciting.  I guess my companion got a little over excited because a couple days later after gym time I was showering and all the sudden I hear this loud banging on the door and then I hear Pearson yelling EARTHQUAKE!!! haha and it was just the maintenance guys like drilling outside our house haha he's a total goof ball.  Its really super nice place here in the CCM its seriously like a Mexican resort.  There's a huge basketball gym, tennis courts, ping pong tables, a football field, a ton of computer labs, soccer fields haha the only thing we're missing is a hot tub!  It rains a ton almost every night any where between 4 and 7 will just be down pour and it just stops after that so I've been using dad Nike gold sweatshirt coat jacket thing a lot.  I love it here! I seriously thought I would hate it but its so fun.  I am kinda anxious to get to Kentucky though but at the same time I'm nervous to teach real live people.  I did  find your journal entries mom and they are such a huge help to me.  I read them almost every night before I go to bed.  I've been keeping up with my journal writing every  night too so hopefully I'll keep that up!  I was writing in my journal last night and I looked at my watch to see what day it was and it said 23rd and I just said freak! haha its momma's birthday!  I love you so much and hope you had a great day yesterday and just want you to know you are the best mother in the whole world! Tell Lily she shouldn't miss me to much because I'm just a mean nicky!  I miss her a ton and I'll send her a letter but it takes like 2 to 3 weeks to get here.  I finally got that letter you guys sent me on Tuesday!  I was so happy when I saw it!  How was Ashley's endowment?  I wish I could of been there for it!  I'm super excited for her to get married in 2 days but I really really wish I could be there!  Just out of curiosity what happened with my guitar? haha is she being taken care of?  I also need you guys to send me your Skype info like pronto.  I have to turn it in to the tech people or whatever so they know!  Im not sure if you knew this but I found out that I'm Elder Pamphlet haha in Spanish is Folleto (pronounced fojeto) haha so anytime I meet a Hispanic Elder I tell him that's my name and I always get a good laugh out of them.  How's jack doing?  I'm playing so much futbol here by the time I get home I'll be nutmegging him left and right haha!  How's Emma? is she still going to the temple every week?  I loved that picture in the backyard haha I crack up everytime I see it!  I showed everybody and they all thought Emma was my long lost twin or something haha.  If you guys get a chance check out the Mormon message by Quinton L. Cook called "Hope ya know, we had a hard time."  We watched it in class and I just thought it really applied to me and to our family so check that out.  I was studying in the morning one morning and I just couldn't think of what to read for some reason and I just thought in my head "Alma 26:27" and I turned there and it fit so well with my mission and it really strengthened my testimony and gave me so much more support if I ever needed it on my mission.  I love all you guys so so much and hope you have a great week!
Love Elder Follett

Picture of the week....Turns out Nacho Libre just means free nachos haha

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Week 2-"I Will Go and I Will Do"

April 17, 2014
Week 2 has been amazing! So much has happened its hard to remember!  I actually ripped my pants because in one of our study breaks one of the hermanas threw a fruit loop in the air for me to catch in my mouth and I bent over backwards to catch it in my mouth and as soon as I did my pants ripped out haha but I sewed them back up and there good as ever!  This week has been kinda the start of rainy season but its still super hot!  It's like high 90's all day and at about 5 or 6 it just starts pouring rain!  It's super gorgeous here!  Yeah Mexico is a little higher elevation they said Utah is about 4 or 5 thousand feet and Mexico City is like 7 thousand so yeah that's probably why I got such a bad nose bleed!  Here is the picture from the clinica!

My district here seriously feels like my second family and I don't think i'd be doing as good as I am without them!  It's nice to know at least one other person going to Kentucky as well! One of our zone leaders is a guy from Westlake, Utah but he lived in Kentucky like 6 months before his mission and went on splits with the missionaries a lot there and said its super great work and there's a lot of it!  I'm super excited to get out there!  I feel like my Spanish has finally clicked just a little and I'm finally able to say actual sentences and it's helped a lot!  I still have along long way to go thought haha but for two weeks I feel pretty good!  We have been learning a lot lately about how to teach people and not lessons and so we watched a couple of these little videos called 1 in 8 million.  There like little short stories of random people in New York City and its really cool to watch and just see peoples lives and how the lord has blessed or tested them and whether or not they recognize that its the Lord.  I've really gotten into the Book of Mormon like never before and I'm super excited to read it every day.  I hope that that attitude doesn't just last on my mission but I hope I'll be able to continue appreciating it for the rest of my life.  How is everyone doing?  Ashley only has like one more week!  I'm super sad I can't be there and have just been trying not to think about it.  Tell Lily and Emma I miss them a ton and love them!  I really miss jack a ton I wish he could be my companion haha have you guys got a Skype account yet?  I was so happy when I found out I got to see you guys on Mother's Day!  My companion was called as the district leader which is really cool! He is only 18 and he's a great guy but being with someone constantly is super hard but I've just been trying to be super patient and we had a weekly interview with our branch president and he just randomly told me in my interview that sometimes were called to be a Nephi and sometimes we're called to be a Sam and that even though he's not mentioned or he wasn't as important character as Nephi, Sam still received the same blessings from the Lord and so that' kinda been my motivation for the week.  I know its not as cool or as important as being a leader but I'm just trying to keep the spirit with me at all times and not have any contentious thoughts and I know the Lord will bless me. I love  all you guys so much and hope everyone starts to feel better.

One of the hermanas took this picture!  These are the guys in my district!  Me and Pearson are in the middle and Brown is on the left and Virtue is on the right!  Virtue is hilarious he reminds me of Joe Cosby haha were good friends.  Love you all!! Talk to you again next week!
Love Elder Follett

The CCM in Mexico City

April 2, 2014

We made it to Mexico!  It is super humid here, I'm already sweating! I don't have much time but my P day is on Thursday but I'm not sure if it starts tomorrow or next week so I'll either email you again tomorrow or next week!  I love you so much!  My address is

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero

07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico

Mexico is so amazing!  It is so huge and so beautiful here!  I wish you could see it!  I have an awesome companion his name is Elder Pearson and he is from Vernal Utah!  He is only 18 and he graduated early and is going to New Jersey on his mission!  The food here is actually really good but a lot of people don't like it but I thought it was great!  There is so much that has happened today it's been crazy!  When we flew into Dallas we flew right over Marcus High School and I saw our old house so that was pretty cool! It is so crazy here in Mexico!  It's super humid and hot and the people drive like so crazy!  There was one sister on my flight who going to Kentucky also so that was pretty cool! Brandon Eldridge is in my same house!  This place is so huge! I never knew! It's like 90 acres and there's so much stuff to do! I'm excited to get to my first day of studying and learning tomorrow!  I got all my name tags which is super cool!

April 10, 2014

Mi Familia

What's up family! Its crazy here in the CCM! I'm so happy I got sent here it's a great experience.  I've made so many friends and seriously love everyone here!  I can only email once a week on Thursdays which is my p day and I only have an hour!  My companion is Elder Pearson from Verna, Utah and he's a great guy! I'm learning so much here! My days are super super busy it's unreal!  I wake up and am constantly working until I go to bed! Brandon Eldridge is here so most people at the CCM know me as sinerita folletta or abolita folletta which means my little grandma hahaha.  How is everyone doing?  I miss all you guys! Tell dad I love him so much and miss him and every time I sing hymn in my Spanish hymn book I'm reminded of him!  I'm so happy I'm here guys! I miss you all a ton!  There's another hermana in my district who is going to Kentucky so that's pretty coll!  Most everyone in my district is going back to the states!  There are 4 elders and 4 hermanas in my district.  I love you all so much!  I'll send you pictures in another email!

The language is coming slowly but a lot better then I thought! I've already made a trip to the local CCM hospital haha but I wouldn't be nick if I didn't! I got a super bad bloody nose haha like it wouldn't stop bleeding for an hours so they put like some ice mask on and a big apron and shoved some gauze like 2 full inches up my nose haha the lady there took a picture of it and she's going to email it so I'll send you guys the picture once the lady sends it to me. Your typical breakfast here at the CCM.

I've been so blessed the whole time here at the CCM.  I seriously have never felt the spirit stronger.  I feel like the lord has blessed me with having the spirit constantly with no distractions at all and I feel so happy because of that.  My testimony of prayer and the Book of Mormon have grown so much.  We've already taught 4 lessons to our fake investigator in Spanish and I feel like its improving every time I teach!  I look forward to it even though it's super hard.  I'm working super hard and am always busy.  We get like an hour a day for gym time and we've been playing futbol with all the Hispanic elders and its super fun.  I wish I would have thanked you more for being such an amazing and valiant mother and always teaching me what's right.  I love you mom! I miss you a lot!  Tell Lily I'll send her a letter today but it might take a while to get there!  I miss all you guys a ton! Tell everyone I love them! I miss Emma and Jack and Ashley and Lily and you and dad and Kelsi and Stephen and Belle!  I'm so happy I'm able to make this sacrifice for the Lord and can't wait to see what he has in store for me.

Love Elder Follett

Hasta La Vista!!

We had to wake up at 3am to get him to the Airport to Fly to MEXICO!  He will study Spanish for 6 weeks and then off to KENTUCKY!

These two were goofing off the whole time!

 The Last Time my kids would be all together for at least the next

2 years!....

Last picture before he got on the plane.....SO HARD TO SAY GOODBYE!